Korean Job Discussion Forums

[freethought]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/219818/page/1

so after reading that article about the failure and idiocy of abstinence only sex-ed in America, I'm curious what gets taught in Korean schools.

Does anyone know anything? If it happens? What age does it start? What do they teach?

[ekul]

I can't tell you what they teach. However, I recently played a game called if you were in my shoes. One kid said to me;

If I were in your shoes I'd teach sex education.

Lovely. I guess they get it though, otherwise how would they know what it is?

[andrewchon]

They get sex-ed in Middle and High school.
Less said about it the better.

[kabrams]

[Steelrails]

I think it varies from school to school. From what I heard from other teachers its up to each school and then its up to each teacher. Some teachers are pretty progressive about things, others are worried about too much information leading to teen-pregnancy and that sort of thing. It varied from 5th grade to 8th grade. Some also had it earlier for girls than boys.

[eIn07912]

For the most part, there is no sex-ed here.

They do basic human anatomy in high school. That covers the reproductive system and obviously birth.

But far as safe sex, diseases, prevention, protection, birth control, it just doesn't happen while still in school. Girls are encouraged to talk to their doctors about it and men just learn from their dads or older males that take them out drinking and such.

[egrog1717]

Ya, some friends and I were talking to our co-teachers during camp one day about this... Just curious and what not... Apparently none of them (Late 20s to mid-30s) had ever had a sex-ed class... Learned about their "magic time" (I swear to God that's what they call it in English, lol) from their mothers... But nothing about sex or sexuality at all...

[Koharski]

Keep it clean, people. I will not edit this thread again.

Koharski

[jvalmer]

I believe Sex Ed was introduced maybe 7 or so years ago. So, what's taught hasn't been too developed yet. I work at a girls middle school, with a high school up the stairs. They get some guy, or lady, usually nurse and every student goes into the the auditorium and listens to some boring lecture. Later in the day they get to see a video. Kind of like what I got in elementary and junior high in the late 80's and early 90's.

Not as advanced as when I was in high school, where we actually saw some instruments that can be used to graphically demonstrate what was happening. Also, got to see some smokers lung encased in plastic to see what happens to your lungs if you smoke for too long.

[Hightop]

I tutor some first year middle school boys and they talk quite freely to me about their lives. One day I asked them how school was that day. They said it was disgusting. I had to ask why and they said they has some special class that day. The girls and boys got separated and the female 'nurse teacher' came and talked to the boys.

I knew what they were talking about then and was ready for the conversation to stop but the decided they wanted to tell me what they had learnt. They said that the nurse had told them that sometimes men like to make white water. At which point they made sounds like it was disgusting and screwed their faces up. But then one of the boys said to me 'Why men do that, its disgusting' I'm pretty sure that at this point my face was heating up. I said to them, 'probably cause they get a good feeling' to which their response was 'nurse teacher said that too'.

So there you go, some kind of sex-ed starts in first year middle school.

[cdninkorea]

Changing attitude toward sex threatens South Korea
Growing promiscuity, lack of education may lead to increase in AIDS, experts say
Bobby McGill, Chronicle Foreign Service
Friday, March 14, 2003
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/03/14/MN19286.DTL

[Samurai Blur]

[Captain Obvious]

I think these days kids in Korea are getting most of their sex-ed from the same place as any other country that has the internet.

[freethought]

a while back I worked at a middle school in Korea, and i had a few incidents that opened up my eyes to a lot of things. There were the male students who were complete jack-asses toward the girls and were taking advantage of them. But it was the girls who made me feel horrible on a couple of occasions.

I had many students who would come talk to me at lunch, and one very sweet and nice girl would always come ask me why her BF was so bad to her. I told her she needed to have a different type of boyfriend, since every guy she ever told me about was a trouble maker in the lower level-bound for agrischool stream. And one BF was a complete *beep*, but I guess she felt pressured by him and slept with him. She was going to tell me this happened, but she sort of paused and it looked like she was going to cry and said "I have to go". But she clearly knew nothing about sex and was even more clueless about boys then a female student the same age in Canada/America etc.

But I gave plenty of speeches I don't actually believe in to these girls who would come talk to me. Boys were bad (I believe that one, actually). Don't trust them (I believe that too). Don't listen to them (ditto). And that sex should be only if you love someone (I felt like a hypocrite on that one).

They didn't seem to have any kind of sex ed class, but when I was in junior high the school's guidance woman would pull aside the boys and girls who had 'relationships' and give them all kinds of info and show how to use condoms etc. clearly nothing like that was happening in korea.

[Xaiko]