I also cannot pinpoint when I found this out, like not even a year. I remember sex education but I believe I already knew before hand. Also Sex: How and when did you first learn about it? And then the first line: Inspired by the thread about children I nearly crapped myself, luckily I carried on reading.
For us it was one of those things that single person in our year discovered and subsequently went round telling every unfortunate soul who hadn't sat and had the chat with their parents at break time. He explained in great detail and I remember thinking that I could understand the male side but there must be some major gaps in my knowledge of female biology for it to make sense. We were probably about 7-8.
I just learnt on the job tbh ... ha, no, like many others, I can't remember. I do remember being told by a mate, in year 2, that you have to "wee in the woman when you have sex" Don't worry, I didn't believe him.
I recall the situation, was either 10 or 11 at the time. Sex education class was coming up in school and one night, just before I was going to sleep, my mother came into my room with a medical book. She had a page marked about menstruation and female reproductive organs. She was so embarrassed and didn't stay in the room while I read. Although my mother asked if I had any questions, wouldn't have asked her anyway. Learned the rest from the class in school with the boys in a separate room from the girls. (Good old Catholic school ;P)
All I remember is that I learned the biological facts before I understood that some things weren't supposed to be discussed in public. I believe I caused my mum a few awkward moments. My parents were pretty good about giving me age-appropriate information and answering any questions I had. Between that and the interwebs, I got a pretty thorough education. The same approach hasn't worked so well for my little brother, though - he's fourteen, and just a month ago asked Mom, "When a baby is born, does it have to go all the way through the small intestine? 'Cause that sounds painful."
Pretty much the same thing, I knew what sex was but not a huge amount about it. I think I first heard about sex in the middle of primary school at about 8 or so.
For me i was in school and the school board thought it was important we learn about the male and female workings and how babies were made. We started learning about all this in i believe grade 5 or 6... and as we go through the grades we were taught more and more about the internals and how each part contributed... I do remember we all would laugh whenever the teacher said penis or vagina though... we were young...
some kid (a girl funny enough) went around saying i bet you dont know what sex is to every1 in the class i was a NE (new enternce so about 5) about a month later mum bought an encyclopedia and said i was aloud to read it when i wanted, only looked up one word in it for years
Something along those lines sounds about right. We saw some educational movie in 4th grade (age 9-10?) which was probably the first point I'd seen it on a screen in some form, but probably in the couple years before we all understood at some level (mostly from the fourth grades who told us what they had just seen in the movie).
no clue how or when i learned about it really. parents never told me about it. i didnt ask either. i dunno. as you grow up you just know. im guessing i knew what it was about when i was atleast 8 years old. maybe sooner. i dunno. we did learn some stuff in school. once in grade 5 and once in like grade 7 or 8. not since though. im not so sure we have a sex-ed class even.
I seem to remember overhearing another student talking about it in early junior school, so maybe about 7 or 8... Looking back I was quite naiive, and I guess being at Catholic schools probably didn't help, but I remember being disgusted at the thought of what I was being told - "I can't believe my parents ever did something like that!!" (... but apparently they did, at least twice LOL) I don't remember asking or being told by my parents, so my developing education was down to school friends and biology books (volume 2, page 43, heehee)
First biology module in first year of grammar school (aged 11-12) was on the biology of reproduction.
It is a gradual process of assimilation of knowledge, a bit like other aspects of life. Children are generally not interested in what they do not understand, and will interpret information at a level of their understanding. You could tell them the whole story about sex but apart from showing some morbid fascination ("Eeeuw, gross!") they will not take most of it on board, and will simply not understand much of it. So children just gradually absorb snippets from what the parents told them about where babies come from, sex education and (most often) playground rumours and stories constructed from what they overhear from older teenagers who by that stage have developed an obsession with (although not necessarily a significantly better understanding of) the topic, to form their own picture. As they grow up this picture becomes more detailed and accurate, and as they develop sexually it also becomes more interesting to them. So to ask when someone first learned about sex is like asking them when they first learned about language. It's a gradual preconscious process that keeps building on and modifying pre-existing knowledge.
