Miranda Grigor photo Dawn More leaves a lasting impression on her students.

Students in general arts and science say they’d recommend their human sexuality course to anybody - as long as Dawn More continues to teach it.

This is the class that nobody wants to miss.

More has turned her crowded B-building classroom into an environment where everyone feels safe to be themselves.

Whether you’re straight, gay or transgender, sexually active or abstinent, judgements are left at the door. And if you walk into her class thinking you know everything about sex, you’ll soon be put in your place.

Throughout the two semesters that human sexuality is offered, students learn about aspects of sex they didn’t even know existed. More covers everything from safe sex, love and relationships to gender roles, prostitution and sexual coercion.

Students are also exposed to issues such as sexual variations and disorders, the deconstruction of pornography and sex research.

Contributors to the field of sex research are examined, including Alfred C. Kinsey, who learned about sexual behaviour by interviewing thousands of people, and the team of Masters and Johnson who studied sex through direct observation. The class learns about how sexuality has been viewed by different cultures and religions throughout history.

Students like Shawn Burke leave More’s class feeling more informed and prepared to deal with an extremely sexual society.

“Every weekend I go visit my friends at Carleton U and they don’t have a sex class so they’re really intrigued,” said Burke, 18. “They’re always like, ‘oh, what did you learn this week?’ They nicknamed me Sex Ed.”

Sara Smith was not expecting to learn so much from More’s class when she saw it on her timetable.

“I thought it was going to be like ‘use condoms,’ like the same kind of thing you get in high school,” said Smith, 18.

“But it was just a big shock. Everybody’s so much more open. You can talk about anything. When I came in I was so surprised how Dawn is just so accepting of everything, she doesn’t judge about anything.”

Human sexuality is offered in other programs with different professors, and also online. But an online course doesn’t give students the opportunity to take part in class discussions. Students say it’s exposure to different people and opinions that makes More’s class effective.

Jay Inglis, 23, took human sexuality I and II with More when he went to Algonquin two years ago and says it was a pivotal experience.

“It clarified a lot of stuff that I thought I knew,” said Inglis. “It opened my eyes to things I didn’t understand yet.”

The reality is that people, especially young people, are curious about sex. And their curiosity goes way beyond “the talk” from mom and dad.

More welcomes curiosity in her classroom and aims to provide her students with the knowledge they need to make safe and responsible decisions in their day-to-day lives. She has had students who say she changed their lives.

“I have been fortunate to have heard how much this course has meant to some of my students,” wrote More in an e-mail. “Some have mentioned that after taking the course that they feel better informed, more confident in themselves. They have talked to me about feeling more tolerant towards others who are different or who make different choices. They have said that they feel personally empowered to make important choices from a better base of knowledge.”