Can you say why America is the greatest country in the world?
GPOY to end all GPOY’s. I regret nothing.
I feel I should keep this on repeat and reblog it once per day
thank you finally some one sees it the way i do lol
WELLL!!!!!! *waves church fan*
Dear Mother…
watched this yesterday!
http://noire3000studios.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/naked-black-justice/
“Hate is like you drinking poison and expecting me to die.”
“Yes, I know who my father is.”
“I am not a thug.”
“Prejudice is injustice.”
“I am a college grad.”
“Black love does exist.”
“I am not a nigger.”
“I will not let hate get me on my bad side.”
“I am not suspicious.”
“Racism is mental illness.”
“Let your haters be your motivators.”
“I am not a drop-out.”
“Disrespected but never destroyed.”
“My child is not a target.”
“I am not a lazy person.”
“<3 is stronger.”
“I say it loud: I am black and proud.”
“I am beautiful” “I am an American too.”
“America was built on our backs.”
“I am the future.”
This is awesome.
Yes.
dear internet, let me tell you some things about my public-school-in-georgia sex education.
pictured above is my abstinence til marriage card, given to me in my eighth grade health class. as you can see, i did not sign it, so it is non-binding. they were “optional” but the teacher placed the basket at the front of the class and stared us down. my 13-year-old self had a very brief dilemma between 1. making a stand and not getting one or 2. getting one because it’s fucking hilarious. i am very glad i chose the latter, because as i predicted, this is now something hilarious to show everyone.
that year in health we also learned “how to spot the identifying features of a crack baby” which is literally nothing but lies. we had a system of anonymous questions, and once someone asked “how do i know if i’m a lesbian?” our teacher looked disgusted and she replied “how would i know? i’m not a lesbian!”
EDIT i forgot to mention when she gave these to us she suggested we “cut up our cards together with our husbands on our wedding day” and i remember thinking, fuck if i marry someone from my middle school
the next time i had sex ed in high school it was taught by a dude gym coach who spent the whole time talking about his daughters. the book we were learning from listed “low self-esteem” “stunted social growth” and “depression,” among others, as consequences of premarital sex. at one point, it asked us to fill in the disadvantages of having an abortion. our teacher went, “well, i’m personally against abortion, so we’re just going to skip this section,” which confused me, because it was explicitly asking for an argument against abortion.
the last time i had sex ed it was pretty good and there were free condoms and we got little bottles of lube every time we answered questions, but i don’t think that counts cause it was in an intro to women’s studies class.
Sometimes other states feel like different countries.
I was born and raised in NYC. We first took health in sixth grade and then in ninth grade and it was mandatory. There was no signing of parental consent forms to learn about sex and our bodies. You had to take health or you could not graduate. We learned about pregnancy by watching that episode of Degrassi where Spike gets pregnant because she has unprotected sex at a party. We were taught about condoms and different forms of birth control and never were the words abstinence only ever uttered. I didn’t even know such a thing existed until much later in my teenage life. We looked at pictures of STDs and we have an HIV positive, gay, male lecturer come and tell us about his life. I was 14 years old and will never forget his words:
The only way you can be 100% sure you won’t get pregnant or get an STD is by not having sex. But some of you want to have sex, with boys, with girl, with both, and you’re going to do it even if adults like us tell you not to. And that’s okay. But be smart. Be safe.
They handed out condoms to us and the guidance counselor had an open door policy when it came to grabbing them from her office, no questions asked, no shaming. I learned so much from this class that I came home and excitedly taught my mom things even SHE didn’t know. The health teacher came into class the first day and said, “PENIS PENIS PENIS VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA. These words aren’t dirty. Practice saying them, because we’re going to be saying them a LOT in this class.”
Health class was important. We learned about abusive relationships, drug addictions, abortions, mental illnesses and were given resources to help deal with these issues (we watched a lot of 80s Degrassi and it was pretty awesome). I feel extremely lucky to have taken these classes as a teenager. I didn’t have sex in high school but that was my choice. I knew my options and THAT’S what’s important. Teaching abstinence only doesn’t work. It leaves kids uneducated, ashamed, and without resources to make good decisions about their health and body.
So, thanks NYC public education system. You’re doing it right.
I literally can’t even imagine learning about sex that way. I had health class when I was in 5th grade, 7th grade, and 9th grade. None of it was cencored and didn’t try to sway us towards ABSTINENCE IS THE ONLY WAY. There was no judgement and open communication and I’m so glad I grew up in Washington.
Yup I can’t remember if it was in 4th or 5th grade that I had a health lecture on all that stuff because I barely remember it.. but I do remember we watched a video and someone explained all that stuff to us. Course this was back in like.. 91 or 92.. so there was some stuff that they didn’t talk about like.. there was no discussion about gays and lesbians.. which I would have liked to know about, because I being a very sheltered person didn’t even really realize homosexuality even existed until I was in highschool :/ I think that’s probably why I didn’t realize I’m pansexual until only like.. 5-6 years ago. But anyway that’s a little off-topic.. However when I was in highschool there was this dude that came to our school to give a presentation about love and sex.. and I remember him stressing not to have sex with someone unless you loved them and it was really lame.. Then we had this other course where this lady was demonstrating how to put on a condom and was saying that if a guy ever tells you that the condom is too tight so he can’t wear it, don’t sleep with him cause he’s a liar. She then proceeded to put the condom over her entire arm to prove her point XD
Aaaaah, Georgia. Pretty much the only thing I remember about Sex Ed before high school was the teacher demonstrating this thing with tape and how “every time you have sex you give a little bit of you away, until there’s nothing left to give your future husband” or some bullshit like that. She just stuck the tape to like everyone until it wasn’t sticky anymore. It was dumb.
We only have to take Health once in highschool, I took it freshman year. That was a bit better. The teacher at least acknowledged different kinda of contraception, but there was still a very loud “ONLY ABSTINENCE IS 100% EFFECTIVE”. And then it was basically don’t let people pressure you into sex and babies ruin your life. So, baby steps. I guess.
I really just cracked sex jokes the entirety of “Sex Week” in Health in an attempt to ease the awkwardness.
