I first encountered Sexuality Education in the US at a parent meeting on the subject at my son's 6th grade class. My expectations were to receive information about puberty, masturbation, sexual intercourse, the new passions and feelings adolescents experience and other issues that relate to adolescents and sex.  I thought I'd be presented with good reasoning for why teenagers should refrain from having sex at a certain age as well as to be provided with guidance about the ways to consider and determine when one is ready for a sexual experience.

I was surprised and shocked. The meeting was totally and extremely different from what I had expected.

The lecturer seemed to be a very religious man, though he did not identify himself as one. He was a volunteer in an organization whose stated goal is to provide sexual education to schools. However, their definition of sexual education was the presentation of abstinence as the only option.

The lecture's actual topic was "Why You Should Not Have Sex Until You Get Married". It consisted of a never ending list of the terrible things that could happen to you if you had sexual intercourse, accompanied by a long and very detailed list of STDs. The lecturer also emphasized in a most disturbing way the implications of getting pregnant, the possible complications during pregnancy and the difficulties arising from teenage pregnencies.

I came home so frightened that I told my husband that I didn't think we could have sex ever again because so many bad things could happen to us if we did.

This event aroused my curiosity and motivated me to investigate the subject more deeply. I don't think that the issues mentioned in the lecture should be ignored or treated lightly, but I do not believe in the effectiveness of spreading fear as the principle tool in any kind of education either.
I wondered whether the program I had encountered was characteristic of the general view in the US, or whether it was practiced only in Dallas or Texas. Therefore I chose this subject as my major project for this class.

.