PLEASE HELP :D

[nny]

I would appreciate your filling in this poll if you have time; I'd also appreciate you pimping it, especially if you have UK folk on your f-list.

Basically I'm carrying out this poll as preliminary information for my Educational Study - I also intend on printing out what results I have tomorrow morning so I can show it to my Professional Tutor in order to justify my desire to study this topic, so the sooner you can respond the better.

The age categories are divided according to educational key stage in order to make the information more applicable to my study.

If you've got any suggestions how the poll could be improved, let me know.

NOTE: please ignore the whole 'go to question 3' style directions. It just confuses the issue needlessly and I confused the wording. Answer all questions, please.

Cheers, darlins. :D


[Poll #1060837]

Comments

[dramaturgca.livejournal.com]

Number the questions?

[villainny.livejournal.com]

I'll keep that in mind for when I do a more official version of this. Cheers. :D

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

I couldn't take the poll because of the "needed to know" wording. In my case, what I needed to know came in the form of discussions with my parents, long before any formal sex education began in school.

Oh, and I know this poll is primarily focused on the UK, but basic school sex ed is given in the U.S. when we're 9/10 (or at least it was when I was in school)

[villainny.livejournal.com]

We also get sex ed at that age, but it's built on and consolidated throughout secondary school. The age group I'll be teaching is the 11-18 age group so that's where my focus is.

Thanks for the heads up on the wording, I'll keep that in mind when I carry out more official polls later on.

[maggiebloome.livejournal.com]

The sexually aware question is difficult, because we may have different definitions of sexually aware. I mean, are we talking crushes or masturbation here, you know? Or just awareness of the existence of sex? Does walking in on your parents count? (these are all hypotheticals :P not indicative of my answer)

[villainny.livejournal.com]

I'm probably going to format this with much greater detail when I'm carrying out my study; both w/r/t the meanings of 'sexually aware' and 'sexually active' and the levels of helpfulness/applicableness as regards sex education. This is pretty much just an initial survey so I can convince my professional tutor that this is a relevant study to undertake about his school.

Thanks very much for the input, though, and I'll expect you to pull me up on it if I get it wrong next time. ;)

[silveraspen]

Suggestions for improvement in a more official version:

1) Numbering the quesstions/being careful with the "go to" wording, so that you don't inadvertently encourage people to skip some of the baseline data points by trying to help them to fill in country or orientation-specific questions only. (This could be because I am sleepy, but. *wry* It took me a few looks to realize.)

2) Seconding what bethbethbeth said w/r/t age at which sex ed was offered in school. Maybe also include something about mandatory v. voluntary sex ed classes, if there's a difference in the system you're examining? And/or specify educational source in your questioning. E.g. someone might have received sex education but outside the school system, you know?

3) Also seconding maggiebloome; sexually "aware" is difficult wording due to reasons of definition.

4) You may end up tripping over issues of child sexual abuse somewhere in all this.

5) Writing questionnaires is HARD. You have my complete sympathy. *passes tea*

[silveraspen]

Oh hey one last thing. *wry* Allow me to showcase my ignorance! I am presuming based on context that your numeric categories are "your age at this point in school/education" and not "years of school completed." Still, it might be something to clarify on a more official version.

[soupytwist.livejournal.com]

I was confused by the sexually aware question too - my instinct was to say about age 10/11, but I wasn't sure what category to pick for that so I went with the older one.

Also I'd say there can be arguments about what counts as sexually active, especially for situations where the handy 'did a penis go into a vagina?' isn't applicable. So I erred on the side of caution there, too, but once you have a definition it should be easier to say for sure what I'd click. :)

Looking back, I am still entirely boggled that I managed several years of sex ed with NO mention of gayness at all. For fuck's sake, school!

[soupytwist.livejournal.com]

Oh and I would also say that while highschool sex ed was good at clearing up some of the stupider misconceptions that students had, I at least found it really boring because by the time I got to the class I'd already read about all the stuff it mentioned. This wasn't true for everybody, but I'd definitely say most of the information came too late - by the time we were talking about abortion, several girls in my year had already had one, and some had left school to have the baby. If most of the info they'd spread out over the five years had been crammed into the first two years (easily done, nobody did any work in those lessons and some of the stuff from the first two years could have been done later) then I think it would have been a lot more useful.

Also, more info in primary school sex ed would have been good - maybe some kind of 'if you want to know, here's where to go to for info' type thing - but I gather this is outside the scope of your study here so I shall just say YES GOOD IDEA FOR RESEARCH LET NNY DO THIS PLS SCHOOL PEOPLE. *waves flag*

[apiphile.livejournal.com]

It was a fucking good thing I got all my knowledge out of some books my mother bought me because we had virtually NO sex education at my school - it was just assumed we knew everything already and oh god there were some misconceptions flying around.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Seriously, the more I hear the more I completely despair.

[renshai.livejournal.com]

I don't know what it's like in other countries, but in Canada, at least, the caliber of sexual education you receive varies greatly depending on the area of the country you live in, and, especially, whether you're attending a Catholic school or a public school.

I was in the public system until I was 13, and then Catholic afterwards, and whereas the public school teaching was relatively (for the time period) inclusive, and seriously thorough, the Catholic basically consisted of "don't ever do anything, ever, unless you're married" and there was next to no mention of non-hetero sexuality at all (while the religion class next period was all "blah blah sinning man and man shall not lie together etc fire and brimstone", which was just so much fun).

I think they're mandated by law to tell you about condoms, etc, but all I remember was being made to memorize the failure rates of all forms of birth control.

Of course, the public school was in Saskatchewan, and the Catholic one in Alberta, which may also have had something to do with it, since Saskatchewan is more liberal than Alberta by a not-inconsiderable margin.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Thanks very much for that info. I'm definitely going to include questions about the denomination of the school in the information I collect; the school I'm working at is the only non-denominational co-educational school in the city, so ideally I'd like to compare it with other schools in the area, although that might be difficult due to time constraints.

This is only supposed to be a relatively short study but the temptation is there to extend it, possibly with a view to publishing it elsewhere at some point, because it's genuinely upsetting to see some of the comments about the (lack of) sex education that's available. It's seriously criminal.

Anyway, yes, thanks so much for your input on the issue - I'm with you on the whole Catholic school experience, although at least it was in science and not with the ex-nun who taught us RE - and I'll keep it in mind when collecting further data.

[midnight-violet.livejournal.com]

Ta for the "I don't" ticky box! I know i'm seconding people here, but "aware" and "active" are going to mean very different things to different people. You've got me to thinking though, about P.S.E and biology, the repetition in a different tone. I remember much information on not getting pregnant, and odd sheets about stuff to do with attraction. Oh, and getting taken off to the gym for a periods talk.
Hope thats constructive- i went somewhere good but average- not religious or anything- if you want to talk to UK bods about this anymore at some point.

On being asked once,(mockingly) why i didnt have a boyfriend i announced, somewhat precociously,i guess that i was a feminist... "DUDEK'S A LESBIAN"... :D

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Cheers for the info, love, and I'll probably pester you about this at some point - if I'm allowed to do it, of course. I'm definitely going to be rewording the active and aware ticky boxes, as well as including definitions so that I know that everyone gets me.

[merrymoll.livejournal.com]

Er, I'm an old fart, I started high school 18 years ago, and attended a Catholic school, so naturally the sex ed was affected by the Churches attitude to sex. Plus the Scottish education system is different to the rest of the UK. Most of the really useful info was from my Mum, friends and later, the internet.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Definitely does; when I start collecting the data in a more focused way I'm definitely going to be including questions about extra-curricular sources of information about sex and the like.

So many things I hadn't thought about! Thanks so much for your help.

[adaveen.livejournal.com]

I'm ancient. I had sex-ed in fifth grade, but it was all about pigeons.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

...pigeons? This is just one of those things I don't want to know, huh? XD

[ilex-decidua.livejournal.com]

I hit submit before thinking of more pertinent info... Most of the basis for my decisions regarding sex have come from watching my sister have a kid at 17. And subsequently having to give up part of my life to take care of that child. Which I wouldn't take back for anything, but still. You learn.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Blimey. It's amazing the range of experience and education that's come across from this poll, seriously, and incidentally major respect to you for helping out in that way. Cheers muchly for showing me your perspective.

[neatokates.livejournal.com]

If you can, check out a Canadian teen soap called Degrassi Junior High. It's very frank and open with teens about sex ed type subjects - I wrote a thesis about it that focused on teen pregnancy and AIDS story lines. Just to warn you - it's very 80s. There's a newer version on TV now (Degrassi: The Next Generation), but it's a little more Hollywood. I know they're both out on DVD in the US and Canada.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Ooh, cool, I'll definitely check it out when I get a chance. The amount of information I've found through this poll alone is actually making me want to take this qualification further and do a Masters in education purely so I can do a dissertation related to this subject and investigate it further.

Thanks for the heads up!

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

You need to ask people's age -- I was 11-18 in the late 60s and early 70s, when sex ed generally ranged from "primitive" to "non-existent".

[villainny.livejournal.com]

I definitely will do when I refine this poll for more coherent data collection. It makes a huge difference - in the UK it was against the law to 'promote' homosexuality through teaching in schools until very recently. Cheers for poking me about it. :D

[cirakaite.livejournal.com]

You might want to include a question re: respondent's age and male/female along with the sexuality question.

To explain my origins, though, I went to a mostly UK based system of international schools, but the locations were Canada, the US, and Thailand from 11-18. Prior to that, it was mainly the UK and Belgium, and no sex-ed at the UK school.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Definitely going to do that when I go about collecting data for my study in a more organised fashion, thanks for pointing it out to me, though. That's what I get for creating a questionnaire between lectures, I guess. :D

[auraesque.livejournal.com]

You may want to look into posting at vaginapagina. You'll need to contact a mod first at contact_vp. Good luck!

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's a fantastic resource, thanks for pointing it out! I'll definitely consider it when I'm going about collecting data in a more organised fashion, if not for this piece of work (which isn't going to be large enough to cover all the amazing input I'm getting) then for the dissertation that it looks like I'm going to end up doing.

Thanks so much for the assistance!

[in-a-tizzy.livejournal.com]

I went to a public high school in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts.

Health class at my high school was a joke in general. I remember being shown pictures of genital warts and the like but the most useful information I got was in 9th (14-15 yrs) grade biology. That's where we got the actual mechanics and real information about birth control. By the time they were talking to us about this stuff in 11th and 12th grade (16-18 yrs) I was already having sex.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

This is what worries me, the idea that sex education comes entirely too late in life. I can't understand how that can remotely be seen as benefitting anyone. :/

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

You maybe need to expand on your useful/inclusive question, as it assumes ones current sexuality is the one applicable when at school - um, that is, my sex ed was basic and didn't cover same sex relationships, but I didn't work out I liked girls till I was over 18 anyway, so should I be answering for then or for now?

[aura218.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had the same issue. I said it was inclusive but included a note that I wasn't gay then. I'm not sure what "inclusive" means anyway.

[cacahuate.livejournal.com]

If someone became sexually active (or sexually aware) at age 18, should they mark 17-18 or 18+?

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

If it was at school, 17-18. If post-school, 18+. Of course, there's a distinct possibility that won't apply in the least if you're not UK based...

*helpful*

I'll try to word it better when I'm composing further questionnaires.

[mysid.livejournal.com]

The first question told me to skip the second question, but the second question seemed a pretty essential baseline question, so I answered it. It was one of the ending questions that I had to skip. You may want to eliminate the "Go to question 3" portion of question 1.

[cacahuate.livejournal.com]

I think "Other?" was the second question, not just part of the first question.

[mcmuffins-js.livejournal.com]

Looks quite interesting! Will you be posting the results here? If so, I'd like to friend you to keep up to date...

[villainny.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to make a new journal so that my tutor and mentor and so on don't find all my SG:A slash and the like, but I'll be announcing it here when I do.

*grins*

[maeritrae.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about the wording of the last two questions - our sex ed included ME, but it didn't really include any alternative sexualities. Whether that's what you're asking or not, I don't know.

Most of what I know about the very basics of sex came from my parents, or from a handy book entitled "Your Body, Your Self" or some such other nonsense. Most of what I know about the more complicated aspects of sex came from fandom. ;)

I'm fascinated by the number of people who clicked "I am not sexually active". I thought I'd be one of a small minority. Are you going to check for a correlation between that and age/background/level of sex ed?

[villainny.livejournal.com]

I'm definitely going to be rewording, but yes - I meant whether the person answering felt included and felt that the information was applicable to them, in order that I can compare it to gender and/or sexuality answers from earlier. I mean, a lot of Catholic schools insist that sex shouldn't come before marriage, but to a heterosexual student who doesn't intend on getting married that might not be considered inclusive. In other words it's not necessarily neatly divided along sexuality boundaries and that would be a useful consideration in and of itself.

I'm with you on the fandom influence, absolutely. I went to a Catholic convent school and the sex ed was crap but I spent all of my Information Technology lessons reading Mulder/Krycek porn.

*giggles*

I thought the minority'd be smaller, too - I'm right there with you. And looking at the correlation wasn't really something I'd considered in that arena but it would definitely be interesting; it's getting more and more likely as I go through the results and answers here that I'll end up doing a Masters in Education purely so I can make this a dissertation subject.

[rebootfromstart.livejournal.com]

The sex education my school received was largely about mechanics, and *only* in regards to heterosexual pairings; anything 'unconventional' was left off the syllabus. Nothing about same-sex pairings, nothing about sex that wasn't PIV; if we wanted to learn anything about how two girls might go about having gay sex, or how two guys should avoid doing damage to each other, or hell, even how to have safe oral sex, we had to go outside the school system to do so; there weren't even any books in the library on the subject, and believe me, I looked. The first time we got taught anything other than "he puts his sex in her sex and they have sex and if there was no condom and Pill, nine months later baby!" was when my gay Drama teacher held an illicit Q&A during one of our classes.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

That just horrifies me. Seriously. Especially how common that seems to be. I'm pretty sure I didn't get any information at all about alternative sexualities either and I'm going to have to look more closely at the legalities of it, since I know it changed fairly recently in the UK.

My sex ed regarding gayness was all courtesy of my IT lessons and the easily accessible fandom porn from the age of 13 onwards. XD

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Do you need to define "sex education" more? Do you mean the biological 'facts of life' or personal development/health issues, or both. My recollection is of the two being taught entirely separately (UK).

[villainny.livejournal.com]

I'll definitely reword that when I'm collecting more data; quite possibly I'll do seperate questions covering both in order to cover all bases.

Thanks for the advice. :)

[xarra.livejournal.com]

Swap a 'bi' for 'I don't'... I didn't notice that option... :P

And as I said in other information, I learnt the mechanics - so useful & inclusive... It did'nt cover emotions or how to date or anything that would have been nice for a shy, nervous teenager...

[anitaray.livejournal.com]

In Singapore, sex education consisted of clinical, heterosexual education. I did not know OF homosexuality unti I was 15, did not know it or bisexuality was 'normal' till I reached 18. This was because my knowledge of alternate sexuality came from my parents, who are highly, highly conservative Indians. Plus media in Singapore is very tightly controlled so I didn't even see homosexuality on TV (this was before Will & Grace, or even Friends), and of course it didn't crop up in any books I was allowed to read.

Sigh.