• Mallory •

I'm a child of the 90s. I don't think the desire to succeed comes from my parents, it came from me. I WANTED to do well in school, I WANTED to go to college, and I picked the college I WANTED to go to, but of course my parents encouraged me. But my parents didn't force me into anything. My brother, who is also a child of the 90s, doesn't have much motivation and is quite lazy. My parents gave him the same encouragement as they gave me when we were younger. It depends most on the person.

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I think the wording "succumbing to parental pressure" is strange, because it makes it seem like a parent wanting their child to succeed and to do well is a bad thing. I know that some parents CAN be controlling and demanding, and that is wrong. But as a child of the 90s myself, that is not what I experienced from my parents.

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I wouldn't say a "complete" revamping, but changes definitely need to be made. Education on some topics is not comprehensive and many important topics are left out (see my answer below about sex-ed).
There is too much focus on learning about The Classics in English classes. Don't get me wrong, I love English and I do believe The Classics are important, but there should be more focus on grammar.
Obviously math is important, but most of the math taught in school isn't used in everyday life. I think calculus and up should only be taught if the student wants to take it, or will need to take it for their intended career or what their intended college requires.
And I think students should be taught techniques on HOW TO STUDY based on how they learn. Teachers encourage students to simply read from their books or notes, and for most students that is completely useless.

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Sex-ed should be required in school, and should begin around the time puberty hits. I think it should begin in 4th grade (around age 10). I agree with how my elementary school went about it; the boys and girls were split up for sex-ed in 4th and 5th grade. 4th grade was for learning about yourself and how puberty works for your gender (ie. girls learned about periods). 5th grade I think was for learning about the other gender, but still keeping them separate. then 6th grade was for covering everything together, with boys and girls in the same room. But after 6th grade, though, the quality of sex-ed dropped. The focus seemed to be on the male anatomy and how sex worked for guys. Everyone knew how a guy had sex and what a male orgasm was. But we weren't taught about how sex worked for females, past the fact that a penis enters the vagina and the female can get pregnant.

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I was never taught that a girl should not bleed when she first has sex and if she does, her body was not properly prepared for penetration. I was never taught that the hymen only covered part of the opening to the vagina and that it stretches. My first boyfriend thought I was lying about losing my virginity to him because even after having sex a few times, I was never in pain and I didn't bleed.
We were never taught what the function of the clitoris was.
I've even experienced a few guys being totally shocked that girls have a separate opening for peeing, and that we don't pee from our vaginas.
Some people still don't understand that the vagina is INSIDE the body; what you see when a girl opens her legs is her vulva, not the vagina.
Some guys don't even understand the differences between testes and the scrotum, or sperm and semen.

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Sorry, a bit off topic, but sex-ed should be required because of these reasons, but it's obvious the curriculum needs to cover these topics better. It's scary how uneducated people are about something they have been taught about THEIR OWN BODIES. Parents should also take some responsibility for teaching their children, but most parents don't and that is why sex-ed should be required. the only "sex talk" I got from my mother was "I'll be damned if my 14 year old daughter ends up pregnant." I was still a virgin at the age of 14.

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