Sex has long been a taboo in classrooms and homes alike in mainland China. It’s been a decade since scholars called for the introduction of sex education among primary and middle school students, but the reticence over the topic remains as ever.
Despite the prevalent evasive attitude toward sex, few educationists would deny the importance of systematic sex education for teenagers. Of all the negative influences led by the ignorance of sex knowledge, pregnancy and AIDS affection among teens are the worst ones, followed by rape-related juvenile delinquency and psychological harms.
Opposition to sex education is out of concerns that students will be obsessed with it and get distracted from their study, an unwanted outcome for parents to cope with.
“Isn’t that pornographic cartoon for children? Too misleading”, a father expressed his objection after viewing the graphical illustrations of sexual intercourse in the sex textbook published in August among Beijing’s primary schools.
That father’s remark represents the majority’s opinion on sex education for teenagers. What they fail to see is that forbiddance can only tickle more curiosity.
Being blocked from acknowledged accesses to sex information, young students can resort to internet erotica without much trouble, which is essentially misguiding. A couple of teen nude photo scandals in recent years already revealed the bad influence of those “underground” information, proving the necessity of formal sex education among teenagers.
It’s more about protecting oneself than getting to learn the mystery in sex education. A survey in 2009 showed that only 40.7 percent of primary and middle school students are aware of sexual assault. A most alarming trend is that the number of pregnant teenage girls has increased year on year.
China’s sex education, mostly some ground teaching about puberty physiology, starts much later than it does in most foreign countries. In Japan and Sweden for example, children are inducted to sex education since their kindergarten years.
With the initiative of promoting series of rather "revealing" sex textbooks among primary schools in a few major cities this year, hopefully China will dismiss its shyness over the taboo.
