Naked men line-up at Bristol school to help with sex education
A Bristol secondary school has tried out a new style of sex education by letting teenage pupils examine a line-up of naked men.
The pupils at Hanham High School, aged 14 to 16, watched a screen in the main hall showing a live feed of different men who were being filmed in the school's gym.
The youngsters were told to ask which areas of which man's body they wanted to look at, with the idea of showing them that every person's body is different.
Then a group of 16 went on to take part in a workshop where the students learnt about sexual activity, personal hygiene and about differences in body appearance with the aid of a dummy male model.
Tom Harvey, 16, of Longwell Green, said: "I learnt more from this than from my previous sex education classes. It was really interesting and the way they taught us about everything was practical and made it more understandable."
Every student who took part in the lessons had parental permission.
Jess Shepherd, 15, of St George, said: "My parents really wanted me to do it. It was such a good way of learning, and I think it made the boys realise not to put pressure on girls to have sex and look good."
The interactive lesson came to the school as part of Channel Four's The Sex Education Show, for an episode which was shown on Tuesday night. During the series, presenter Anna Richardson is accompanied by a team of sexual health experts at secondary schools across the country to give young people the sex education they are missing.
Assistant head teacher Jo Postlethwaite said: "I think what this has given us is a starting point to revamp sex education. The students really benefited from people from outside the school coming in to talk to them about sex. It can be hard for both students and teachers to go from a teacher being your maths teacher to being your sex education teacher.Maybe it needs to be someone completely different."
For last year's series of the TV show, players from Long Ashton Football Club's first team dropped their shorts to bare all for episodes looking at issues such as sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and fertility.
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by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Tuesday, April 07 2009, 8:00AM
“:| I am sorry you felt the need to take my previous post down Editor. . It was clearly too near the truth. . Hasn't it occurred to anyone that it is exactly this type of thing that has led us to the dire situation we find ourselves in now. . There is nothing NEW about sex. . People just need time to grow up, become adults, and be adult about it. . They have there whole lives before them. . Let children be children for goodness sake. We will become a really sick society if this continues. As if the internet hasn't contributed enough enough damage already.”
by jason, bristol
Monday, April 06 2009, 6:49PM
“i'm 16, and i have been watching the series and have found it very helpful indeed. i do not think the work 'educational' is atall missleading. the program is providing a much needed service to all young people about the genitals and may even help some teens to solve their problems.”
by Guy, Colorado
Monday, April 06 2009, 5:51PM
“As a long time nudist I find it really silly how our US society finds nude bodies to be immoral or perverted. It's so backwards that we are conditioned to feel ashamed of our nude bodies. We are all nude under our clothes, we were born nude and our bodies are an amazing thing created by our maker. We should all appreciate our nude bodies for the beauty that god created, no matter what shape, size color or defects exist. And teaching our children these values and showing them what a variety of naked bodies looks like is a very positive step. As they reach a certain age they are naturally very curious about what a developing body looks like and trying to keep them from finding out only leads to them exploring on their own. And of course this often leads to sexual situations before they are ready.
So I think this approach is a good one, although I think they also should show the female anatomy in the same way. Let them see, in a safe situation, what the human anatomy looks like, both male and female. But the questions should be limited to non sexually explicit questions. And I feel a video could be done under controlled circumstances that would do the same thing, without the need for live subjects.”
by Hana, brum
Monday, April 06 2009, 4:04PM
“what kind of men want to expose themselves to children? Nasty. No good can come of it.”
by Charles Henry 1945-(diuturnity), Somersetshire
Monday, April 06 2009, 11:34AM
“:| I suppose you all think your generation invented sex don't you! . Well I can tell you. . You are WRONG! . WE DID IN THE SIXTIES!”