Let’s talk about sex, baby. Let’s talk about the inadequate preparations and precautions taught in sexual education to you and me.

Strangely enough, a program that should be dedicated to teaching the safest way to have sex, is designated to tell you to avoid intercourse.

In the same way that abstinence is a form of birth control, abstaining from plane rides keeps you from getting into a plane crash. If this can be taught in sex ed, why can’t it also be taught in driver’s ed? After all, it is just a minority’s opinion that is being forced upon an audience.

According to Bill 3310 of Tennessee Education Legislature, it is the job of the sexual educator to “Promote sexual risk avoidance through abstinence, regardless of a student’s current or prior sexual experience.” This does not seem like much of a problem; however, further down in the bill, it outlines that no other forms of birth control can be promoted.

It strictly states quite often that unmarried students must abstain from sex, which sounds an awful lot like inflicting religious views on students.

Though it may control pregnancy, it should not be taught as the only form of birth control because without learning how to use the other birth controls, they become inefficient.

Legislature on the curriculum focuses on promoting waiting until after marriage, which is a common practice among many religions. However, if church and state are to remain separate under the law, then why would religious ideologies be taught to students regardless of their religious beliefs?

The extent of sex ed that goes beyond abstinence is an instructional “How to put on a condom,” which is not inclusive of all (or even alternate) sexual orientations, and, therefore, inadequate. Acceptance of diversity cannot be taught if diversity is not acknowledged.

While sex ed might teach you the mechanical basics, nothing is taught that will prepare you for your first time.

In a survey of students at our school, most said that they assumed their first time would be a lot like how it looks in online porn, besides the dialogue and unlikely situations.

For many people, the first time they see a woman naked won’t be in a moment of intimacy, it will be when they are alone in their room staring at a computer screen. All of the physical information they have gathered about sex is from watching a video of strangers.

According to “We Are Thorn”, which is a program devoted to defending against online sexual abuse of children, in 2011, there were 18 million files of adolescent pornography uploaded. An unbelievable amount of other terrible materiel is available online, which is where many teenagers go to learn about sex.

Pornography does not teach you what actually goes on, emotionally and physically, and neither does sex ed.

Of the students surveyed, only two knew what a hymen was, none knew that it doesn’t actually get popped. This myth of a cherry popping makes people think that your first time is going to hurt and sometimes bleeding will occur. However, no cherry gets popped! Your first time is not supposed to hurt. No bleeding should occur.

This wildly important detail is left out or told contrarily. It has become accepted that it will hurt for the receiver, but it is not supposed to by any means, and if it does, then things need to slow down or stop completely.

Sex ed teaches you that once you get a condom, things are ready to go, but that is just not the case.

It is highly encouraged for any gender to do your own research online from medical sites because, chances are, you won’t get that education anywhere else.