Health Education Class in 1960s.

I remember reading somewhere where someone posted that there was an article in an old education manual talking about how health classes for girls should include a real life male model.

I know it won't happen now for sure, but back then it seems like it was possible. Was this really true or some fiction? Anyone who grew up back then know about it?

I sincerely doubt that anything like that ever happened. Perhaps you might find that being recommended as a sort of ´in an ideal word without complexes´ ... but in true life? Not very likely.

I was in school throughout the 60´s at the right age for sex ed classes, but nothing of the sort ever happened. In fact I don´t think we even had illustrations or photos ...

This sounds more like a nostalgia fantasy than anything actual.

Sex education lessons agracier? What were they?

I had no sex ed at school (I don't think even biology classes), 1941 - 1952, and an all boys school at that.

I did have a sort of sex ed lesson from Dad, which I've posted elsewhere about.

I learned later that when he and Mum married in 1931 she went home after a few days "because he wasn't doing anything"!

So my sex ed with him went like this:-

"Now lad, I always said my lads wouldn't be as ignorant as I was when I got married" - "Now, you know girls are different than boys don't you?" I'd no idea even what sort of difference he aluded too.

Frankly no. I didn't know girls were 'different' than boys, and I was probably 16 by then but from an all boy family which was VERY religiously driven. Not withstanding this I said "Yes"

He followed with:- "Ok, well that's all right then" and walked off! On talking to my elder brother, 5 years older, and my younger brother, 7 years younger, I find it went exactly the same with them!

I got them in 64 and/or 65. They were given during religion class (seriously, not a joke) by a Jesuit priest, one who later became known as a sort of ´radical priest´ a la Paul Simon as in his song ... the lessons were factual with enough biological details to be useful I guess, but they were also rather heavy on ethics and the personal feelings and responsibilities of sexuality on a subjective level ...

Even so, it was a bit new at the time and not practiced in many schools either. And there were never any illustrations or photos involved either. It was all done by instruction ... simple talking.

No real formal or comprehensive sex ed for me either. I grew up with brothers and so was well aware of the physical differences - I think co-ed baths were the norm in large families up to a certain age.

I went to Catholic school and in 5th grade the girls went over to the public school for a talk about menstruation. Of course the boys didn't have their own talk and were just told it was about being a woman - HA! So I'm sure most were clueless for far too long a time. But it just wasn't talked about in those days.

A girl friend told me about intercourse - she had it mostly right. I read a lot, books meant for adults and had older siblings, so you pick stuff up and the gist of my sex ed at home was wait for marriage and especially, don't get pregnant.

It was a college class on human biology that was my first comprehensive instruction and I loved it.

I think a real life model would be too intense for most kids, but pictures and plastic replicas would be necessary to properly educate. With the caveat that they are only examples and that humans are not standardized!

I went to a mixed school but we had no formal sex ed. The nearest came when the biology teacher told us that we were old enough to learn about the facts of life, we were aged around 15 then. The class went deathly quiet, but all she told us was how women have a bigger gap in their pelvis to allow for childbirth. We knew it all anyway but was hoping for more than that!

I first heard about intercourse when I was age 10, the boy who told me was age 11. I told him he was talking rubbish and didn't believe it, but he had it mostly right. A misconception he had, and one that I heard repeated several years down the line, was that to make a baby the man put it in to get something from the woman...And no I don't think they meant something nasty!

My mother had a book called the 'Modern Woman's Home Doctor' and I was always thumbing through that, perhaps that's where I got the medfet bug from! That covered intercourse so I had to believe it eventually. I remember it saying that the man climbed partly on the back of the woman during intercourse. It was an old fashion book but probably quite advanced for it's time.

A similar story to BigK's father was one of my great aunts, God bless her soul.

She got married but didn't have a clue what it was all about. On the wedding night her husband tried to do what husbands do, but she rejected him saying... 'Hey what are you playing at" What's your game"!

He walked out the next day and she never saw him again.

She said many years later " I couldn't be doing with all that sex thing"...Sad.

I've only heard of real life models in art clubs!

Dr Philip - The UK Play Doctor.

My school was probably one of the worst in the area education wise (guess that explains me then!). However we did the usual biology classes that included rabbit reproduction long before we learned how humans had sex. Our teacher, unfortunately for him, was very shy and couldnt control the class as such sex education proved to be very vague.

Periods were covered in what they termed as social education classes, which were basically the Housecraft teacher telling the girls about menstruation, personal hygiene etc etc

I do remember a very graphic childbirth video which unfortunately gave the class bully a nasty turn and he ended up being sick everywhere. It was pretty horrendous and for 13 year olds in those days perhaps not ideal to show.

I'm probably the only one left on the planet who was actually surprised when my mother sat me down in my room and explained the birds and the bees to me. I still remember my response.... "You mean they actually put them (boy parts and girl parts) TOGETHER?" I might have been 10 or 11 at the time, and immediately upon learning the news, ran outside to tell my younger brother. His response..... "Yeah, everybody know that."

In 1963 (nineth grade) my school divided the sexes into Boys Health and Girls Health classes. We were given the basics but nothing specific.It was taught by the biology teacher for the boys and the nurse for the girls.

Am I allowed to go back to the 1950s? When I was about 14 or 15, our biology teacher gave a class on the anatomy and physiology of the rabbit - covering many different aspects, and ending up with reproduction. When the bell rang at the end of the class, he looked up and said, "Oh, by the way, humans do it the same way!" and walked out of the room. That was the sum total of my formal sex education. But by then I had already acquired a fairly comprehensive knowledge of the "facts of life" through the usual informal channels (mainly from other kids).

We had a class or a meeting when I was in 5th grade too. The boys went into one room and the girls in another. I had been dating my childhood sweetheart by that time for one and a half years almost. So, we told each other pretty much everything that happened in our two meetings. Apparently they were all given pieces of paper and were told to write a question on each piece about sex that they had. All the papers were folded and tossed in a bag. They were pulled out and I am guessing answered as tactfully as possible.

We girls were told all about how our bodies were changing and what we could expect. I to my knowledge don't remember them saying anything about sex. Neither Scott nor I were interested in sex at that time anyway, lol. We were cool enough just holding hands, lol. Ahhh, back when life was simple and uncomplicated and when kissing behind the drinking fountain was super hot, lol.

Mashie

I grew up in California and attended High School in the late 60's The time of free love,etc. Well, I sure didn't see any of it and I lived across from San Francisco. I do not recall any sex education in our public high school. I was just plain too shy and missed out on quite a bit back then.