Learning about Enemas in School

It did actually happen -- although I had received enemas while hospitalized a few years before.

I graduated from a medium-sized school district in upstate Pennsylvania during the late 1960's. "Health" subjects (sex ed was still a big taboo at the time) was concentrated in the junior year. For the guys, the emphasis was on first aid, and for the ladies, home nursing, including the giving of an enema, was the predominant subject. And the two did "cross-train" but not until late in the year, so that a there was a difference in emphasis among the two genders.

Our instructor was a gent in his fifties from the Italian/Russian enclave on "the other side of the mill"; his principal raison d'etre was to serve as assistant football coach and, since he dealt only with the guys, he had a certain "maculate" component to his personality which, I'm sure, would not be tolerated today. He ran most of the curriculum by his charges by resorting to films, and found one with a couple of rectal temp scenes that qualifies as "Coach's stag films". The enema was "demonstrated" with the usual props borrowed from the womens' health class. but the water would be run directly into a bedpan.

I learned a few years later that the home-nursing portion of the course was discontinued for males sometime in the Seventies, and often wondered whether the emergence of klasmiphilia via the famous "Penthouse letters" might have had something to do with it.

.I was a "late-bloomer" and didn't do much dating at the time, but later contact at college with people who grew up in smaller school districts where "Home Economics" was still pushed for a lot of the girls leads me to believe that my alma mater wasn't the only place where practical nursing was part of the curriculum. And as one person from one of those districts put it, "When you have a graduating class of only thirty or less -- there aren't many secrets." Can anyone else offer a similar story?

I think you would have to go back to my grandparents time to get anything like that.

My grandparents on my mother's side were raised in Canada right after WWII and may have been taught things like that. I can flat out prove that there was less standardization of the curriculum across the Province of Ontario than there is now. What exactly was taught at either of the schools they attended has been lost to history.

On my Father's side, his mother grew up in Germany during the war, and was for practical purposes on her own from around the age of 14. My dad was her first and was not born until she was almost 30. His father moved around a lot all over the American Midwest. Graduated high school just exactly 30 years to the day before my father. Dad in June of 1977, Granddad in June of 1947, so it's a little more questionable whether he would have bee taught such things.

Nice story, Sorry in the 90 and 00 in school I never heard about that

In the 80's we were not taught this, not even in my emergency medical technician class. I am not sure about the medical assistance class that was in the next room, my friends didn't mention it.

I grew up in the 50/60 never saw that taught!

While I was attending some college courses in the early 70's, there were three classes that seemed closely related. There was the traditional "Health" class, "Matrology/Patrology", and "First Aid". These seemed to be a block of required classes in Phys Ed. In any case, the health class was pretty basic, but the first aid class used a text by Louise Henderson. The entire text was covered and that included the section that discussed enemas for a variety of conditions. While it didn't get much focus from the male instructor, the illustration was a stark reminder to many of us who found ourselves in that position receiving an enema. It did generate some limited discussion especially in smaller groups.

In the motherhood and fatherhood class, the nurse/instructor covered birth control and feminine hygiene issues. She actually brought a douche bag and covered it's use in class. The demo was quite enlightening to those who had no idea about the use of a fountain syringe. There were no actual recipients of any treatments, but the use and care was well explained.

For this closet Klismo, I had to rush back to my apartment to practice what I was taught.

In all my years of education (secondary, High school, or college - Class of 6😎, I don't ever recall hearing the word "enema" used in any class I ever took. Of course, I received them at home as a young child for whatever ailed me, so I didn't need to be educated in classes about enemas. My folks even gave me "age appropriate" books on sex and anatomy even as a fairly young child, so that was another topic I knew more about than most kids at an equivalent age. The folks were always very open about these topics, and would always answer any question I had without embarrassment or shying away from the topic. I was always amazed how many kids knew so little (or were so ill-informed) about these subjects when they would come up in our typical young boy conversations.

Oh yes, I did have enemas covered in my senior health class in high school. We all had a Red Cross Home Health Nursing book, which had a section on enemas with drawings of the procedure being given. This was my senior year in high school in 1962. Our senior health classes were segregated by sex. I was in an all boys class with a male teacher. He also covered douching by females and told us that we would be glad they did this. NO male in this class seemed surprised by the enema process, so I am assuming they had all received them, or had known about them being given often.

High School HealthEd class (all guys) and one of the fellows asked the teacher if you could have sexual intercourse while the female is menstruating....his answer was, "Sure, if you don't mind a little Ketchup on your meat!" It was long remembered.

the boxcar.

I am not sure what grade I think 10th? We had to read "To Kill a Mocking Bird". They mentioned walking past the pharmacy seeing the farmers admiring the enema bags in the window.

I found out that my Mom was in a class in the 1970s that was required for girls but not available to boys.

As the boys were being taught "Community Health and Safety"

Girls had a class on "Early Childhood Development"

The class was only 9 weeks long and part of a school-year long "Health" class.

There WAS a section in there about enemas in there , but because the class was so short, only a small part of the material could be covered, and the teachers had a lot of discretion as to which material to use, and NOT!

Given that her teacher was straight out of college herself I seriously believe that her teacher simply skipped over the part on childhood enemas and never taught it.

So I think my Mom learned about enemas mostly by getting them from her mother and grandmother.

We did not have health classes. However, clysters are mentioned in some 17th-18th century literature, such as Molière's plays, and I think it's this way that I heard about enemas.

Or perhaps I heard about them because of barium enemas. Unsure what came first.

I recall hearing some allusions that I did not comprehend at the time about ways to get people to go potty, in retrospect that was probably about bulb enemas. But maybe I overthink it.

In high school, 1974 in biology class, during sex ed it was brought up as part of the birth process in the hospital. Was sort of glossed over quickly.

My son took a CNA training at his high school and there was a whole section on enemas with praticle demonstrations using dummies.

My hubby related to me that when he was in college in the mid '60s the girls who were nursing majors had to give each other enemas, and there was a lot of giggling about it. Back then the nursing college was all female, but it became common knowledge among the guys in the "boys" dorms.

I had to be in the last class when guys got first aid and women got home nursing because my younger sister did not get the nursing class but my older sister did. This was in the mid 70s in Oklahoma, which even today is pretty much the Bible belt. These classes were taught during the colder months when they couldn't accommodate the whole gym class inside so they split it in two with half getting gym 2 days a week and half getting home nursing or first aid 2 days. On the fifth day we would be shown a movie that I want to say was on home safety. The girls did cover enemas and douching and I do remember looking thru my sister's textbook which showed a combination bag like we had at home.

Was back in 5th grade, in the early 1950's, and we had a health class. Our teacher was a strong woman who was rather intimidating. Her husband was supposed to be a police detective in town, and rumor had it that she was or once was one herself. In our health class she talked about taking enemas for health - and did so enough times that I thought she had thing for enemas. Best was one day she told us about how the night before something she had eaten was causing lots of cramps in her lower abdomin - she then asked the class what would be do. No one volunteered, so she then asked if it would be better to drink something or take an enema. Some said drink something, some said an enema! With that, she went on to say an enema was the best thing, assuming it's not appendicitis. She then went on to describe how she prepared and gave herself a large enema, and even though it difficult take, it was important for her to take it all then hold it for so many minutes! I never forgot that!

In SW CT, suburban NYC, in the late 50's and 60's, we barely had health instruction at all, so any mention of an enema had a likelihood of about 0%. No clue as to whether the girls ever heard of it. I learned about it from perhaps 4-5 enemas from my RN mom in childhood, watching her amber latex bag hang in her bathroom for years, and then using it on myself starting at age 15 just after learning how to give myself an orgasm. Rapid learning curve after that. 😉

Eric

Like Eric, never heard them mentioned at school health classes. Not even jokes from other kids. Got a few enemas when I was young, maybe less than six, from my mom. Started experimenting on my own around 10 (mid to late 1950’s)

I remember in sex ed that used to talk about all the Sexually transmitted diseases and back in the day was VD.

There is a textbook entitled "Modern Health" which was published as a study guide in "Health" classes. I don't know the target age, but believe it was for high school students. There was a section on the digestive system that included treatments for distress including constipation. Enemas were covered and 2 quarts of solution recommended.

@sse4fun said,

There is a textbook entitled "Modern Health" which was published as a study guide in "Health" classes. I don't know the target age, but believe it was for high school students. There was a section on the digestive system that included treatments for distress including constipation. Enemas were covered and 2 quarts of solution recommended.

I recall a textbook in High School by that name or very similar used for Health Class. The first class I had in health was in Junior High and enema use was mentioned. In High School, we had a more advanced class and enemas were discussed in more detail, than in Junior High.

The funny thing to my brother, sister, an I was grandma, a retired RN, had given us the more advanced class on enemas before we took Health in Junior High. Some of our friends, but not all, had been taught personal hygiene by their parents, as we were, around the same age.

There is a textbook entitled "Modern Health" which was published as a study guide in "Health" classes. I don't know the target age, but believe it was for high school students. There was a section on the digestive system that included treatments for distress including constipation. Enemas were covered and 2 quarts of solution recommended.

Would this be it? http://awfullibrarybooks.net/modern-health/

😄

@one_eyes said,

Would this be it? http://awfullibrarybooks.net/modern-health/

I look at the above link and this definitely wasn’t the book we use in Health class in Junior High or High School.

That is the textbook.

That is the textbook.

😃

@Rick6981: The book went through many editions, and its cover may not always have been the same.

We didn't learn about enemas, but we did learn about suppositories, somewhat by accident.

One of the subject areas we covered in German lessons was about going to the Apotheke, and about getting medicine, and one of the words we needed to learn was "Zäpfchen". The teacher said that this was the word for suppository, and that this was a common method of being given medication in Germany.

Of course, someone then asked what a suppository was, and she had to explain. I recall the response from the class was "Ewwwwww".

@one_eyes said,

@Rick6981: The book went through many editions, and its cover may not always have been the same.

Sorry, I went through the pages of the book in the link, and it definitely wasn’t the book we used in school. This is not just my opinion, but my siblings as well.

The curriculum for 9th grade health class included the human digestive tract discussed in detail. The class text book had a section that displayed colored layered transparencies of internal organs of the human body. The digestive tract transparency left nothing to the imagination, displaying the oral os, esophagus, stomach, small intestines, large intestines, rectum and anus. Despite all the discussions of human digestive health including the necessity to eat a well balanced diet with adequate "roughage", constipation was never mentioned by anyone and thus laxatives, suppositories and enemas never saw the light of giggles in the class. Like all engineering documentation, failure modes were not discussed.

I had Health in High School here in Texas and enemas were NEVER mentioned nor wa there anything about sex. In my high school, the PE teacher , really one of the football coaches, taught Health. The class was about a two or maybe three weeks long during out regular PE (physical Education) class. We didn't have any textbook.

If enemas were ever taught in my high school, it would have been during the Home Economics classes which were only open to girls. The chapters on Home Health Care and Child Care included a page or so on the use for enemas for the family. This was back in the mid 1950s to the early 1960s, when many bathrooms had the family red rubber enema bag syringe with hose and one of the nozzles attached, hanging on the back of the bathroom door. I must say that I never saw an enema bag syringe hanging on the back of the door in anyone's bathroom, family or friends. But I am almost certain that all of them had an enema bag syringe in the bathroom or a closet in the house somewhere.

Back then most people used the hot water bottle for other health things and they didn't have an electric heating pad. I know my mother had an enema bag syringe, but the red rubber syringe hose and the enema and douche nozzles were in a bathroom closet under a stack of bedsheets on an upper shelf, while the hot water bottle hung upside down on a nail in the lower closet. I never saw her use it and it was never used on me, UNFORTUNATELY. That is not to say that I didn't play with the black enema nozzle and the black curved and fluted douche nozzle when I was alone in the house. I was always very careful to put them back exactly like I found them, too.

@Rick6981: I believe you! It was a different book.