Teenage boys are learning about periods and pelvic pain alongside girls in Australian classrooms in what's hoped will make them more supportive brothers, sons, friends, and partners.
Year 9 student Jack Rogers said he would probably treat his 12-year-old sister "a bit better" after taking one of the classes at his Palm Beach Currumbin High School on the Gold Coast this month.
He is one of about 160,000 students from more than 1,000 schools across Australia who are being taught about... periods and pelvic pain.
The... program represents an evolution from previous generations of teenagers when many health issues affecting women were too taboo to be broached in the classroom, let alone discussed in co-educational settings.
13 Comments
Nath@aussie.zone · 9 pts · 60d
My son was asking about tampons with his mother on the weekend. Discussing when and why she'd have regular and supers, depending on the flow. He expressed interest in seeing how they expand. I said something like 'You dont actually want to see that' and my wife pulled my up short, challenging that assertion.
"Why not"? "Why is it gross?"
Huh. Here's me thinking I'm pretty progressive and supportive and I fall into the old trap of indirectly body-shaming something that's entirely natural.
It is an obvious given that boys learning about this topic is positive. For millennia, women have been told their cycles are unclean - and that's just dumb. I reckon we can sort this shit out in generation or two.
eureka@aussie.zone · 3 pts · 60d
Relatable feeling. There are plenty of regrettable things I've said (fortunately less and less each year) that reflect just normal things we hear in society, only when someone calls it out or I remember them later do I realise it wasn't the best thing to say.
(and I'm glad that I mostly avoided any stereotypical campus kids who don't have the patience or tact to call things out respectfully!)
arbilp3@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 60d
And it's not 'shit' Was that a Freudian slip? ' 😆
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone · 3 pts · 57d
Wait, Australians spell programme the American way now? You were supposed to destroy the Sith, not join them!
arbilp3@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 57d
Must be the Aussie quirk that likes to abbreviate words coupled with the overriding influence of US media though so far, we haven't turned 'night' and 'light' into nite and lite.
Fleur_@aussie.zone · 3 pts · 60d
Yeah when I did sex ed they split up the boys and girls. Doesn't make any sense. We're all better off knowing the whole deal.
bignose@aussie.zone · 4 pts · 60d
From one angle, I can understand their desire to segregate those classes by the students' sex: The kids would get unruly and I think a lot of the material would make girls significantly more uncomfortable, and vulnerable to bullying, than the boys. So they didn't want that headache.
With that said, yeah definitely it is better for children to learn the facts relevant for anyone of any sex, which itself should help stave off bullying based in ignorance. Just needs to be done well, and I am glad we're taking it seriously now.
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 59d
I more-or-less learned from the adverts with Dr Alban that periods are a great time when women go rollerblading and laugh with joie de vivre a lot.
arbilp3@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 59d
🤣 🤣 🤣
maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 59d
I'm male. Did first sex ed in year six, so 1990 I think. Our teacher was our home teacher. I forget her name. I think she was a migrant or refugee from Vietnam. Very patriotic, we had to sing the national anthem each day at start of school. We were the only class that did this.
From memory we learnt in no particular order
arbilp3@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 58d
Was it the Vietnamese anthem? 😆 Kidding, of course. That would have been fun seeing how difficult the Vietnamese language is for Westerners.
Anyway, your no. 1 memory is about the 'fish' smell which is inaccurate but must have shocked you I guess. Did she say that this can happen to both males and females?
maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 58d
Hmm, I wonder which Vietnamese anthem she would have chosen though? Every school day, the national anthem. For a year.
I don't think the smell thing shocked anyone, I think we would have thought it was funny. I think she was just making the case that the changes we'd all experience were nothing to freak out about or be ashamed of.
arbilp3@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 58d
One thing for sure, you're probably one of the very few Australians who knows our national anthem beyond the first verse.