How to teach sex education to children
Hui Yan, a doctor from the Central People's Hospital of Yichang, Hubei Province, had an embarrassing lecture experience - in the auditorium of a junior high school, as the keynote speaker, Hui Yan's topic was sex education for middle school students. More than 400 students of different grades His parents and teachers all sat down and listened together.
"It ended in embarrassment." Hui Yan was deeply impressed by the scene that day.
She had proposed separate classes for students of different grades, and separate classes for boys and girls, but these suggestions were not adopted.
Huiyan said: "There were so many people at the scene, and I didn't want to talk too deep or too detailed, which caused the students in the lower grades to listen very ignorantly, and the girls in particular felt very shy, and the final result was very bad." After the class, some parents reported to the school that they should not talk about these unspeakable things in public.
In many primary and secondary schools, there is such an embarrassment.
During this year's National People's Congress, how to carry out sex education on campus has become the focus of the delegates.
In recent years, reports of minors being sexually assaulted have appeared frequently in the newspapers, and more and more people have realized that sex education must start with children, and that sex education courses should be introduced into primary and secondary school classrooms.
Now the question is, how should this sex education class for children be taught?
"What was discovered is actually just the tip of the iceberg"
Yu Xinwei, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and vice chairman of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, has been paying attention to the issues of child safety education and sexual assault prevention education for many years.
In recent years, she has submitted several proposals on related topics every year, calling on more people to pay attention to this "hidden corner" of adolescent growth.
In 2014, Yu Xinwei, along with the Women's Federation, Civil Affairs and other relevant departments, went to the families of left-behind children in rural areas to investigate the children's sexual safety issues.
"The live cases are shocking and heart-wrenching." Yu Xinwei said, only after the investigation did he realize that the problems discovered were actually just the tip of the iceberg.
In 2015, the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Committee submitted the "Proposal on "Protecting the Rights of Minors and Strengthening the Construction of a Sexual Security System for Left-behind Minors in Rural Areas" to the Third Session of the Eleventh CPPCC Guangdong Provincial Committee.
The proposal believes that the current social system is facing difficulties in protecting the sexual safety of minors, such as parents who are incapable of guardianship or long-term failure to perform guardianship duties, lack of education to prevent sexual assault in schools, lack of comprehensive treatment in grass-roots villages and communities, and punishment of minors who sexually assault minors. It is difficult to obtain evidence and characterize criminal acts, and it is difficult to protect, remedy, and compensate the minors who have been violated.
In the 2019 National Two Sessions, Yu Xinwei submitted a proposal: "Suggestions on Incorporating Children's Sexual Assault Prevention Education into the Compulsory Education Curriculum System", calling for the introduction of authoritative and professional sexual assault prevention courses as soon as possible, popularizing the common sense of sexual assault prevention, and integrating the prevention of sexual assault. Education is included in the nine-year compulsory education curriculum and a compulsory course in primary schools.
Many deputies share the same sentiment.
Liu Li, deputy to the National People's Congress, also suggested that sexual assault prevention courses should be included in nine-year compulsory education and compulsory courses in primary and secondary schools.
She believes that the self-protection awareness and ability of minors to prevent sexual assault and sexual harassment are far from sufficient.
"Girls Protection" 2021 Statistics on Child Sexual Abuse Cases and Child Sexual Assault Education Investigation Report shows that over 90% of the respondents believe that it is necessary to conduct sex education and sexual assault prevention education for underage children; more than 96% Respondents believe that sex education and sexual assault prevention education for underage children need to be included in normalized teaching.
The classroom lacks top-level design, and there is no unified teaching material and professional team
Schools should be the main front of students' sexuality education. However, in the teaching practice of primary and secondary schools, Huiyan encountered a very common situation. There are still many practical problems to really bring sex education into the classroom.
Jing Jing, the principal of Tianjin Huiwen Middle School, said that the common confusion encountered by grassroots schools is: how should sex education classes be taught?
What should be the specific knowledge of sex?
How to distinguish teaching content and methods for students of different ages and genders.
However, there is a need for sexual knowledge among students who are in puberty.
Quan Jing said that children of this age are prone to impulsiveness and do things recklessly.
Sun Yan, deputy to the National People's Congress and vice president of the Reproductive Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, met many young women who had suffered infertility after repeated miscarriages in the clinic.
Sun Yan found that these young women basically did not receive correct sex education during adolescence, "there is no contraception during sex, and even the idea of using abortion as a contraceptive method."
Sun Yan suggested that the barrier to prevent unintended pregnancy must be moved to middle schools.
Middle school students are in adolescence and their sexual consciousness is sprouting. "At this time, middle school students need to be told what behaviors are healthy and how to take protective measures."
There are long-standing calls for sex education to enter the campus. Gao Xiaodi, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a full-time painter at the Chengdu Painting Academy, believes that after the reform and opening up, the Chinese government has been promulgating laws, regulations and related documents for schools to carry out sex education.
But there are many hurdles for these documents to be implemented.
In Gao Xiaodi's view, these obstacles are mainly due to the misunderstanding of sex and sex education, the belief that "sex is equal to sexual behavior, and sex education is equal to sexual instigation". These concepts have become the "big obstacle" for sex education into the classroom.
Jing Jing also said that the biggest resistance to sex education in schools often comes from parents. "Some parents worry about whether their children should hear about sex knowledge."
Because of the lack of professional guidance, some teachers often talk about sexual knowledge in a shallow way, "always worried that some of the content will stimulate some children who have related experience."
Hu Wei, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and full-time vice-chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Democratic Progressive Committee, believes that the school's sex education lacks top-level design of the curriculum, there is no unified teaching material nationwide, and there is no professional teaching team.
"Adolescence education has always been available, but it is still far from enough." Hu Wei suggested that a unified plan should be established to establish curriculum standards, train teachers, and add a curriculum quality monitoring system.
Mandatory reporting also protects the privacy of victims and avoids secondary harm
How to protect those children who have been violated has also become the focus of the delegates.
The compulsory reporting system is one of the highlights of the newly revised Minor Protection Law, which provides a solution for the governance of crimes against minors.
Hu Wei has always been concerned about the implementation of the mandatory reporting system, believing that it not only protects the minors who have been violated, but also helps protect the legitimate rights and interests of other minors.
He also reminded that we must pay attention to the privacy of the victim, and establish a corresponding confidentiality system to avoid secondary harm.
At the same time, establish a blacklist system to strengthen supervision of criminals who have a record of sexual crimes, and strictly restrict these people from engaging in certain specific occupations, such as teachers, doctors, and babysitters.
In cases of sexual abuse of children, "acquaintances commit crimes" account for a high proportion, Yu Xinwei has repeatedly called for strengthening the supervision of "acquaintances committing crimes".
The Supreme People's Procuratorate's work report during the two sessions this year stated that 1,657 cases of violations against minors were handled through compulsory reporting, and 459 cases were rectified and held accountable for failing to perform reporting obligations.
Promoted 7.49 million entry inquiries in the industry that had close contact with minors, and dismissed 2,900 people with criminal records.
Seeing this set of data, Yu Xinwei said that the legal environment for the protection of minors has been improving in recent years, and it has also played a corresponding role, but she believes that "the problem cannot be ignored, we must continue to pay attention and continue to call for ".
China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Hu Chunyan and Liu Changrong Source: China Youth Daily