In my high school health class, which was only allotted one semester and half a credit, we spent approximately one of the 18 weeks of the course on the sex education lesson.
In this short amount of time dedicated to teaching around 30 teenagers about sex, most of it was spent showing us pictures of genitalia revealing various sexually transmitted diseases.
This was the only sex education I received during my 12 years of public school. Luckily though, thanks to the internet and well-informed peers, everyone in class pretty much already knew the necessary information by freshman year.
Unsurprisingly, the newly released Netflix Original: Sex Education proved to be more informational than the week-long lesson I had in high school. The main character, Otis, is the son of a sex-therapist. Soon into the show, he realizes he has a knack for helping people with sexual and relational issues as well, despite being inexperienced and having issues of his own.
A wide range of topics is covered in the teen dramedy series. Otis’ first session deals with helping the class rebel overcome his insecurities and others’ expectations that have caused him trouble with sexual performance. From then on, Otis is able to help many of his peers resolve their problems by talking through them and getting to the root of the problem.
The show touches on topics such as LGBT relationships, female masturbation, consent, abortion, slut-shaming, and many others that are rarely covered in media or even in health class.
The fact that a comedic show on a streaming platform gives more diverse and meaningful information in eight episodes than health class did in a semester says a lot about the curriculum and the lack of positive sex ed in our public schools.