By: Rudi - from the series of guest posts written by Dr. Baldwin's students at Michigan State University.

I had an experience not too long ago that really shocked me. I was lightly messing around with my boyfriend at the time, and I came to learn a very interesting fact about him; he had never taken a sexual education course before. This guy is a college sophomore, you’d think he’d have taken some form sex ed., but he had nothing. Needless to say, I got my anatomy textbook out, and taught him a few things about female anatomy, and, most depressingly, how babies are conceived.

His problem was that he had never been in a setting where he was required to learn these kinds of things. He had gone to a Catholic school up until his junior year of high school where he then enrolled in a fine arts academy. Obviously parochial schools get leeway on what they teach, but it was the arts academy that really got to me. Having spent my high school summers at band camp, I know a thing or two about teenage musicians; they tend to be rather sexually adventurous. Yes, the ones going to an academy are a lot more serious about their art, but they also live with each other the entire school year. Incidents are bound to happen.

Now I know that parochial schools won’t change their curriculum because pre-marital sex goes against their beliefs, but I feel like private schools, just like public schools, should have some form of sex ed. required to graduate. Not only does it increase awareness of pregnancy and STDs, but it’s a good thing to understand how the other sex operates. Nobody should have to break it to a 20-year old that the stork doesn’t bring babies.