Hope For Our Future

[akraus2015]

So, sometimes I lurk TD and get worried about the future of humanity. I know many of you have also mentioned how surprising it is that women know so little about their bodies, even as adults.

I am traveling for a leadership program and visiting high performing charter schools across the country. This morning I visited a high school and came across these, plastered all over the walls:



One poster was called "What's Good Under Your Hood?" One poster even said "body temperature rises after ovulation"!

There is hope for humanity!! Way to go unnamed charter high school! Way to go teenage girls for knowing about your body!!

[requiressnacks]

I think that is very cool. I didn't learn a lot of this stuff until I was TTC.....in my 30's.....

[Deleted]

I didn't learn about TTC until my late 20s, and I feel like I'm still learning about it! I think young women should know everything about their cycles!

This is awesome!

[mrss44]

I think its great to learn early. I also knew nothing about how my body really worked until TTC.

FFTC: I used to think you ovulated 3 days before your period. Yup.

[akraus2015]

Mar 19, 2015 8:12:58 GMT -5 requiressnacks said:

I think that is very cool. I didn't learn a lot of this stuff until I was TTC.....in my 30's.....

Same. I didn't learn most of this until I found this lovely group of women.

[joy]

floored.

[brettanomyces]

Wow, good for them.

[virginiaorjohn]

This is amazing. Maybe you said, but was this posted up in the walls of the hallways, or in a classroom? Just curious, I wondered if both guys and girls are able to see it.

Major props to the teacher who assigned this project. Talk about education that you use for the rest of your life!

[rablissful]

This is AWESOME.

I teach A&P and I have 7 girls in the class. I hope I get to the reproductive system so I can actually teach them how theirs work... ovulation, temps, everything. I mean I'll obv spend a day on how men work, but they really should know how theirs work. This looks like a FABULOUS project for them though!

[leah2489]

That's awesome I didn't learn about a lot of those things until I was TTC either. Yesterday I was talking to my best friend about my upcoming HSG and she didn't even know what fallopian tubes do. And she is pregnant with her 4th. How can you be pregnant so many times and not know what your fallopian tubes do?!?

[anonymouseliza]

I fully intend to teach my daughter the basics, with a healthy dose of "You cannot rely on charting for birth control unless you are rigid about following the rules and please use protection until you are in a monogamous relationship where you have both been tested for STIs."

[cheshie6]

akraus2015, Faith in humanity almost restored! Now if we can get this type of information EVERYWHERE!

I had the mom who taught us a lot and made sure we weren't afraid to ask questions. Her mother didn't discuss it and she vowed to not do that with her daughters. My grandmother, my MIL didn't discuss it with their daughters like it was a dirty secret. Schools do the same thing!

[Deleted]

I never had sex education because I went to catholic school. However, I was put on birth control by my stepmom when she found out I was sexually active. She had been debating sending me for a while because of severe cramps. I learned other bits and pieces through friends and family.
The biggest shocker I think was in my teens when I found why my brothers are only 15 months apart. Apparently, not even vasectomies are fool proof.

[nuggetrn]

Mar 19, 2015 9:52:13 GMT -5 cheshie6 said:

I had the mom who taught us a lot and made sure we weren't afraid to ask questions. Her mother didn't discuss it and she vowed to not do that with her daughters. My grandmother, my MIL didn't discuss it with their daughters like it was a dirty secret. Schools do the same thing!

I agree with this!

I think it is awesome what this charter school is doing, but it also reminds me that this is not the norm! When I was in nursing school during our peds rotation we went into the schools and my clinical group got to do the puberty/sex talk for the fifth graders. It was a neat experience but we were specifically not allowed to answer some questions about pregnancy/getting pregnant once a girl starts menstruating. We were only allowed to say if you have more questions you need to go to a trusted adult/teacher/school nurse whatever. I can't remember the specifics about what we taught/said but I remember all of us being very surprised about what we could/could not say. It was like, but that's important!!! And the school nurse was just very concerned about parents getting angry.    

[akraus2015]

Mar 19, 2015 8:53:36 GMT -5 virginiaorjohn said:

This is amazing. Maybe you said, but was this posted up in the walls of the hallways, or in a classroom? Just curious, I wondered if both guys and girls are able to see it.

Major props to the teacher who assigned this project. Talk about education that you use for the rest of your life!

They were all over the hallways in the sophomore hall.

[anonymouseliza]

Well, obviously, if you teach factual information to teenagers (or younger students) they will immediately be filled with determination and lust and go start having sex. The only right way to do it is to teach them nothing but fear. It's worked so well - just look at Texas teen pregnancy statistics.

/sarcasm

[paloslee]

Thank you for sharing. I honestly learned about TTC when I joined you ladies. I didnt know what was a LP or BBT. Again, thank you.

[cheshie6]

Mar 19, 2015 10:02:31 GMT -5 nuggetrn said:

Mar 19, 2015 9:52:13 GMT -5 cheshie6 said:

I had the mom who taught us a lot and made sure we weren't afraid to ask questions. Her mother didn't discuss it and she vowed to not do that with her daughters. My grandmother, my MIL didn't discuss it with their daughters like it was a dirty secret. Schools do the same thing!

I agree with this!

I think it is awesome what this charter school is doing, but it also reminds me that this is not the norm! When I was in nursing school during our peds rotation we went into the schools and my clinical group got to do the puberty/sex talk for the fifth graders. It was a neat experience but we were specifically not allowed to answer some questions about pregnancy/getting pregnant once a girl starts menstruating. We were only allowed to say if you have more questions you need to go to a trusted adult/teacher/school nurse whatever. I can't remember the specifics about what we taught/said but I remember all of us being very surprised about what we could/could not say. It was like, but that's important!!! And the school nurse was just very concerned about parents getting angry.    

But what if you don't have one of those? My MIL avoided the conversation at all costs. (Doesn't avoid wanting a grandchild) When she asked Dh if he was having sex, she couldn't say the words, it was alluded to. What about kids in foster care?  What about abused children?  Living in low income housing in the 90's and 00's, I was afraid that just looking at a guy would get me pregnant. I didn't want a boyfriend just so I wouldn't be another statistic. If you don't learn it at school and don't have a trusted adult, where will someone learn it?  How many teen pregnancies could have been avoided if we just taught girls how to track their cycles?  I know not all but maybe a lot! 

[BurritosAtEveryMeal]

Wow! Good for them. I just watched the OITNB episode where the girls discovered their pee hole last night. I was clueless for quite some time about all of these body-related issues. And earned everything TTC from TD ladies. Thank goodness for all of you!

[wirt2cute]

That's pretty awesome.

[icequeen]

I love it! Wow, these girls are amazing. I was nowhere near this knowledgeable in high school. So proud of them.

[daisy818]

Mar 19, 2015 9:56:17 GMT -5 @wallflwr926 said:

I never had sex education because I went to catholic school. However, I was put on birth control by my stepmom when she found out I was sexually active. She had been debating sending me for a while because of severe cramps. I learned other bits and pieces through friends and family.
The biggest shocker I think was in my teens when I found why my brothers are only 15 months apart. Apparently, not even vasectomies are fool proof.

I went to Catholic school and had more extensive sex ed than any of my friends from public school, starting in late grade school.  We even had a condom on a banana demonstration.

[Lollipop]

I had sex-ed. But it was basically "you ovulate once every 28 days, have a period for 5-7 days, and use condoms to prevent STDs and pregnancy." And this was at a "progressive" all girl's school.
I didn't learn anything accurate about how the female body actually works until I was already pregnant. I'm still learning.

I'm glad some schools are teaching more accurate facts than I was taught.

[kawaiikitsune]

Not only am I so glad to see girls taking it upon themselves to learn about their bodies, but I am so glad that the school is allowing it.

[Deleted]

Mar 19, 2015 11:16:10 GMT -5 daisy818 said:

Mar 19, 2015 9:56:17 GMT -5 @wallflwr926 said:

I never had sex education because I went to catholic school. However, I was put on birth control by my stepmom when she found out I was sexually active. She had been debating sending me for a while because of severe cramps. I learned other bits and pieces through friends and family.
The biggest shocker I think was in my teens when I found why my brothers are only 15 months apart. Apparently, not even vasectomies are fool proof.

I went to Catholic school and had more extensive sex ed than any of my friends from public school, starting in late grade school.  We even had a condom on a banana demonstration.

Nope, we learned about drugs. That's about it. Even after 2 girls in my grade became pregnant, the focus remained on drrug abuse.

[kellybenelly83]

Can I just say, I love "Meet your Friend Tom" instead of Aunt Flo!

Also huge props to this school.

[daisy818]

Mar 19, 2015 13:19:29 GMT -5 @wallflwr926 said:

Mar 19, 2015 11:16:10 GMT -5 daisy818 said:

I went to Catholic school and had more extensive sex ed than any of my friends from public school, starting in late grade school.  We even had a condom on a banana demonstration.

Nope, we learned about drugs. That's about it. Even after 2 girls in my grade became pregnant, the focus remained on drrug abuse.

I went to a bizarrely progressive sort of Catholic school - half the students and teachers weren't Catholic, and while we had religion class every year, it wasn't all Catholicism - 9th grade was about Judaism, 10th grade was back to Catholicism and the Christian Scriptures (we didn't call it the "New Testament" since that seems to make it superior to the Hebrew Scriptures), 11th grade was Morality and Social Justice, and 12th Grade was World Religions (basically, all the major modern faith systems other than Judaism and Christianity, including everything from Taoism to Islam).  We didn't even use the terms BC and AD in history - we called it BCE and CE ("Before Common Era" and "Common Era").  And definitely studied evolution.  But I can see where many Catholic schools like to just pretend genitals don't exist and that kids go straight from abstinence to highly procreative marriages.

[daisy818]

Mar 19, 2015 13:27:42 GMT -5 kellybenelly83 said:

Can I just say, I love "Meet your Friend Tom" instead of Aunt Flo!

Also huge props to this school.

Yes - MYFT!  I got to meet my friend Tom today

[ldubhawksfan]

This is great to see. I didn't know shit about my body until TD/TTGP. It was disgraceful.

[Lollipop]

Mar 19, 2015 13:19:29 GMT -5 @wallflwr926 said:

Mar 19, 2015 11:16:10 GMT -5 daisy818 said:

I went to Catholic school and had more extensive sex ed than any of my friends from public school, starting in late grade school.  We even had a condom on a banana demonstration.

Nope, we learned about drugs. That's about it. Even after 2 girls in my grade became pregnant, the focus remained on drrug abuse.

What does drug abuse have to do with sex ed? I was under the impression that sex ed was for teaching about the human reproductive system, the health aspects of same, and educating about STDs and their prevention. I mean, I guess some STDs can also be transferred through certain methods of drug use, but I don't see the connection beyond that.