Everything You Wanted to Know About
Posted on April 5, 2014 under Storytelling with no comments yet
Let me tell ya ’bout the birds and the bees
And the flowers and the trees
And the moon up above
And a thing called “Love”
Jewel Akens, 1964
When and where did you get your initiation into the incomprehensible world of sex education? I can say, with utmost confidence, that those of us over the age of 60 did not get this life-altering information from our parents. It was probably “Dirty Johnny” somewhere behind the pool hall who put you in the picture, or Hef. In Hef’s case, he showed us the pictures. I never understood the importance of the months of the year until Playboy magazine entered my orbit. This iconic magazine has shared space with decaying food and dirty socks under many a teenage boy’s bed.
Travelling to the airport a while ago with a friend, I was flipping through the dial on satellite radio. While sampling the usual menu of Pop, Country and Rap I stumbled across a 24 hour sex chat station. I would like to confess that I kept the dial moving but then curiosity got the better of me. It only took about two minutes to get the drift of the conversation. Another station was dedicated to the “shock jock” himself. Let me give you a “Stern” warning. If you are in the least bit prudish, you might find Howard a tad offensive.
There was no such thing as sex education in the school system back in the day. We had precisely one class on the subject in grade twelve. Male teachers did the honor for the guys and, bless their hearts; the nuns handled the delicate chore for the girls. Wouldn’t I love to have been a fly on the wall for that discussion?
The 1960’s was a time of societal upheaval, and nowhere was this more evident than in the world of sex education. Masters and Johnson were a pair of researchers who tackled the subject with zeal … like two crows in heat. And one of the most popular books of that era (150 million copies and counting) was “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)” by Dr. David Reuben. This tome brought sex education out of the closet and into mainstream society. It had a profound effect on the liberalization of attitudes towards sexuality.
PDR, or personal development and relationships”, was all the rage for a period of time in the school system.
And then we got married and, to echo the words of Valdy … “We were kids and we’ve grown,
we’ve got kids of our own …”
We thought we would do a much better job at educating our own kids on the topic of sex. How did we do? Abysmally, by any count. We may have discretely slipped a book on the subject on their night stand, but as far as an all-out frank discussion? It just wasn’t that easy.
So here we are in 2014. The age of innocence is gone forever. Where once there was too little information, today there is way too much information. Schools and parents are doing what they can but let’s face it; it is a free-for-all out there now. Most 7 year olds can access more information about sex in five minutes than some of us accumulated in all of our formative years.
Let’s go back to that age of innocence and talk with our grandkids about important things, like the Friendly Giant and Mr. Dressup, or Sharon Lois and Bram and the characters on Sesame Street.
Other parts of their education will come sooner than we’d like.
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