Job Discussion Forums

[pattyflipper no more]

This should get interesting. A Chinese teacher and myself are interested in doing a sex education class. I find the level of education here on the matter frightening. If you ask where babies come from, it is just as likely as someone will say wal-mart as the real answer.

What we want to do is do a few classes just explaining the basics. They will be learning new vocab and an important topic. The students are all aged 16-25, so it is a good age.

Any ideas on how to do this, if I should do this, and how not to get fired if I do.

Thanks for the help,
Cody

[aaronschwartz]

Go to ChinaDaily web site and search the archives for this topic. The article appeared about a year ago this month of July. Arm yourself with the official central government position which expouses teaching sex education in school because the parents have failed to do it adequately in the home.

I used this article when furious parents came to my school and complained when I taught sex ed. I won the argument and they left their child in the class. If the central government advocates it and you can prove it, no problem.

[aaronschwartz]

China Daily
TV series to promote sex education
( 2003-02-24 15:32 ) (8 )


In a move to break the nation's ancient taboo on discussing sex, China has started shooting its first TV series focusing on sex education for young people.

Entitled "How Can I Tell You This?", the TV series starring a group of junior high school students has aroused widespread attention among the conservative, self-conscious Chinese since shortly after its shooting began recently in the east China province of Jiangxi.

In the traditional Chinese culture, "sex" has long been considered a disgraceful, even dirty, word that few would discuss openly. A child would be scolded by his parents for questions about how he was brought into this world or what the differences are between males and females.

"Many youngsters are ignorant even of some very basic facts about their body," said a 60-year-old man surnamed Li with a media organization in Nanchang. "It's not their fault + their parents and teachers should be more open and enlighten them."

Statistics show most Chinese children enter puberty between 12 and 13 years old, nearly one year earlier than the early 1990s. But most of the 20 million children reaching puberty each year lack information on sex, due to evasive replies to their questions.

"Most of my classmates are sensitive to our physical changes + boys' Adam's apples and mustaches and girls' *beep*, which we can only discuss in private," said Liu Dewei, a third-year junior high student and leading actor in the new series.

As teenagers have more access to sex information in today's world, experts warn that teachers and parents should enlighten them properly to safeguard their mental and physical health.

"Many youngsters have tried to get information from adult websites and porn videos," said a teacher with the No. 1 Secondary School in Nanchang, "And juvenile pregnancies, drug abuse and sexually transmitted diseases have risen among teenage students in recent years."

Liu Zhixian, director of "How Can I Tell You This", hopes the series will provoke the whole society to watch out for children's sexual health, provide them with guidance and teach them how to care for themselves.

China's education authority has also offered children more access to sex information in recent years, and middle schools in major Chinese cities have included comprehensive sex education courses into their curriculum.

Early in 2002, the country's first set of sex education textbooks was published in the northeastern city of Harbin, covering sexual ethics, behavior, procreation and contraception, AIDS prevention and anti-drug warnings.

[aaronschwartz]

China Daily

Most Chinese support youth sex education: survey
( 2002-10-23 14:46 ) (8 )


A survey showed that 89.2 percent of urban dwellers and 74.6 percent of rural residents in China agree that sex education should be conducted in middle schools.

The survey among more than 7,000 people aged between 15 and 49 was carried out by the Society and Medicines Research Center of the Science and Technology Research Institute under the State Family Planning Commission.

The survey also showed that 89.2 percent of urban respondents and 78.9 percent of rural respondents agreed with teaching middle school students about Aids.

It revealed that 80.4 percent of urban respondents and 74.2 percent of rural respondents believe youngsters should be taught about contraception.

But when it came to providing contraceptives and contraceptive devices to youngsters, just 41.7 percent of urban people and 32.6 percent of rural residents agreed with the idea.

Liu Yunrong and Chang Yongjie, scholars with the Society and Medicines Research Center who carried out the survey, said the results showed that Chinese people had become more tolerant towardsex-related issues.

Traditionally, Chinese people were ashamed of talking about sexin public and it was a taboo even among family members.

The two scholars said Chinese society, influenced by tradition and culture, still had a long way to go before youngsters could enjoy sufficient services regarding sex and reproductive health.

[aaronschwartz]

China Daily
Sex education books debut in Beijing
( 2002-08-02 10:11 ) (8 )


Young people in the Chinese capital are opening up to discussion of sex, drugs and contraception, with the publication of sex education books for middle school students.

Haidian District in Beijing's western district, home to a host of prestigious universities, will take the lead in introducing the textbooks, the first of their kind in Beijing, to its middle schools when the new semester begins in September, the Beijing- based Star Daily reported.

The books break new ground in teaching youngsters how to deal with sexual harassment, take emergency contraception measures and keep away from drugs. They also cover AIDS, venereal diseases, "on- line love" and premarital sex.

Publication of the pilot series is a major step forward within the educational system, but teachers and parents were playing a more crucial role in guiding teenagers towards healthy ideas on sex-related issues, experts noted.

Adults are urged to overcome their embarrassment and openly talk about sex for the healthy physical and psychological growth of the younger generation. 

[aaronschwartz]

China Daily

First sex education VCD for youngsters released
( 2002-05-31 10:36 ) (8 )

As Children's Day approaches, China' s first sex education VCD for primary-school students was officially released Thursday.

The publisher, the Electronic Audio and Video Product Publishing House of South China's Hainan Province, said it would soon present two other such VCDs for junior-high and senior-high school students, respectively.

Of the more than 300 million youngsters in China, some 20 million reach the sexual maturity stage each year.

The publisher hopes that the set of VCDs will help adolescents to form healthy ideas on sex, and enhance their self-protection awareness.

Openly disseminating sexual knowledge used to be taboo in China, and this has resulted in some curious youngsters striving to obtain such knowledge in unhealthy ways, including viewing pornographic materials.

[aaronschwartz]

China Daily

Kids: Let's talk about sex, babies
SUN QI
2002-05-16 08:06:26

Chinese children as young as 12 will receive sex education in a pilot scheme in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

With the proliferation of sexual diseases worldwide, in particular HIV and AIDS, and complaining from the public about a lack of sexual awareness, China is a facing the issue head on with the introduction of its first series of textbooks on sex education.

Published in Harbin this January, the books are designed for junior and senior middle school and college students, providing basic knowledge on sex to help prevent sexually transmitted diseases. The textbooks are to be used as reference books by local teachers.

To date, nationwide, China has no official sex education curriculum and has no official course books, according to the Ministry of Education.

Middle school students complained in the past they were not getting enough sex education from their teachers, who either skipped over sections in textbooks or asked students to read the parts by themselves.

Also, the majority of Chinese parents are said to avoid the subject of sex education or even scold children for asking such questions. However, the situation appears to be improving, as increasingly more schools throughout China begin sex education classes.

Some students at a middle school affiliated to the Beijing Institute of Technology are said to be looking forward to their first sex education course this term, as are their parents, as it saves them the somewhat embarrassing task of teaching their children.

Universities and colleges are also placing sex education on their list of priorities.

In East China's Fujian Province, Fujian Normal University offers an elective sex education course. The 32-hour course introduces basic information about sex, including physiology, psychology, ethics and health care.

For about 100,000 students in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, sex is no longer taboo. A two-hour compulsory course on sex education has been included in the curriculum of Changsha's 22 universities and colleges.

Sex education experts said it is not enough for youngsters to receive sex education at school. Society and families all bear an equal responsibility to tell children the truth about sex.

[aaronschwartz]

Children to have more access to sex knowledge

2001-11-28 09:08:25

HARBIN: Chinese school children are to be given more access to sex education.

Comprehensive sex courses have been made available in middle schools in more than 10 major Chinese cities, including Shanghai,Guangzhou, Wuhan, Chongqing, Xi'an and Harbin.

The cities have compiled their own textbooks, covering sexual ethics, behaviour, procreation and contraception, AIDS prevention and anti-drug warnings. Sex-related topics were previously considered "forbidden areas" in teenage sex education.

If successful, similar education will be given in other cities and rural areas, making all middle school students at the time of puberty able to receive adequate sex knowledge, according to officials of the Ministry of Education.

The move aims to prevent teenage pregnancies, sex crimes, an overpopulation crisis, AIDS epidemics and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as to satisfy young people's desire to know more about sex and health.

In China about 20 million children reach puberty annually.

Local governments have realized that young people are facing big health dangers related to sex, illustrated by rising cases of accidental pregnancies, induced abortions and sexual diseases.

One of the major reasons for more sex educations is that youngsters appear to have more open-minded attitudes towards sex than that of previous generations, according to Bu Wei, a scholar at the Research Centre for Media and Youth under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Chinese society is at a turning point, and sex issues are influenced by both modern liberal ideas likely to tolerate more privacy and traditional conservative concepts featuring restraint.

On the one hand more and more young people accept sexual relations before marriage and at younger and younger ages. On the other hand, they lack information, and are not able to get such information from official sources, said Liu Dalin, a sex education expert in Shanghai.

According to an official survey, middle school students acquire 80 per cent of their sexual knowledge, not from schools and their parents, but from books, TV programmes and the Internet. Moreover, 11 per cent of boys surveyed and 3 per cent of girls admitted that they had obtained sex information from obscene sources.

Education experts have noted that sketchy knowledge about adolescence was available 10 years ago in all middle schools across the country, yet few teachers were willing to explain sex to young people.

Xinhua

[aaronschwartz]

Sex education to expand in schools
()
06/14/2001
Beijing will expand its pilot programme of sex education in primary schools, Beijing Youth Daily reported yesterday.

Officials of the Xuanwu District in south Beijing said sex education courses started in several primary schools in the district last year and will be added to more schools.

The district aims to start the course in all primary and secondary schools within three years.

[aaronschwartz]

Sex education needs more attention
ZENG MIN
2001-04-18 09:44:37


Most Chinese parents are likely to divert sex education subject to other areas or even scold children for asking such questions.

And it is not just parents that find it hard to face sex questions. Even teachers shy away from students eager to learn about the subject.

Complaints are on the rise among middle school students that they are not getting enough sex education from their teachers, who either skip over the section in textbooks or ask students to read the books by themselves.

"When it comes to the class for sex and puberty, the teacher always asks us to review the book without any guidance. When some classmates want to raise questions, the teacher's face turns red," said Yao Liang, a middle school student.

Sex education experts are worried that this method of teaching is not good enough.

"Sex education in China is not a problem of sex knowledge, but a lack of proper education. Students should be taught about family values, morals and other values related to sex," said Geng Wenxiu, a distinguished professor from East China Normal University, who studies sex education.

Poor sex education teaching has generated a backlash as students, eager to learn, are turning to other sources, such as newspapers, videos and even the Internet.

Exposure to pornography has implanted a misperception of sex into students' minds, giving rise to a growing level of sex crimes in China, experts said.

Official statistics show that the number of crimes committed by young people in China accounts for 70 per cent of total, and 30 per cent of these are related to sex.

Meanwhile, teenagers in China are entering puberty earlier than before thanks to an improved diet, leading to more sexual activity before marriage among teenagers.

"Sex education in China should make adjustments to meet the changing situation. It should expand from middle schools to elementary schools," said Liu Dalin, vice-president of the Asia Federation for Sexology, a leading sex education expert.

Liu said sex education teachers should be trained to be more professional and use different teaching methods for different ages. "Sex education teachers in China are not up to scratch right now."

[ITCjohn]

Aaron, no need to go back so far. I was in China 10 days ago and saw a show on CCTV9 about a university giving on campus sex-ed presentations, with post q/a sessions. Apparently this was ground-breaking, but seemed to be the first of more to come. I agree, it is high time!

[Tong Dawei]

I agree that it is high time to broach this important topic to middle schoolers in the class room. The message will be reinforced if it is delivered in person by someone who is perceived to be trustworthy. Also, I think it is quite alright for FE to introduce the material to the youngsters IN CLASS due to the fact that we are foreigners and may have an easier time introducing subject matter that is alien to, or never spoken of in Chinese society. I feel it is most appropriate to teach students about the ill effects of engaging in uninformed sexual behavoir (i.e., AIDS, other STDs, unwanted pregnancy, peer pressure...). I feel it is less vital to focus on teaching the students "how to" (i.e., achieve the best orgasm & so on).

So, if you can prove to your principal that the govt does sanction such materials to be taught in the classroom, then let your principal know what you are planning and get to work teaching your students in the most professional way possible about this critical lesson in life.

[Chairman Roberto]

At a recent English corner, I broached the topic of sex education with a group of English teachers (I'm teaching summer school)...and it lasted about five minutes. They all had tortured, terrified looks on their faces when I suggested that sex education could possibly prevent teenage pregnacy. Then I really went over the line when I said "The fact is that MOST people have sex before marriage, no matter what anyone says. So, sex education is very important." From that outrageous comment, the teachers politely asked me to change the subject. They couldn't take it anymore. So, the next topic: "I hear Americans move around alot." Whew! Much safer. No more nasty topics like sex! Mao forbid!

Dude, it's like the 1950s over here. I'm going nuts. Never have I encountered such an UPTIGHT people...and I'm from the American South, the fabled Bible Belt.

Aaron...I just might use your China Daily articles as ammo...if it comes from On High, then no one can give me any grief. Thanx for the heads up!

Roberto

[Roger]

You know the Chinese' obsession with body proportionality, say, a woman's mouth being regarded as a very reliable indication of the probable size of her unprintable part?
The nose of a man - the same thing for a different body part.

Now why did that twelve-year old girl tell me "your nose...very, VERY BIG..." Smiling, giggling.

[kimo]

I'm sorry! I think I missed something somewhere. Could someone tell me what sex is