Experts suggest that sex education should be added to the draft family education law
Don't let sex education become a blind spot for family education
(2021-08-10) Source of the manuscript: The National People's Congress of the Rule of Law Daily
□ Our reporter Zhao Chenxi
"Sorry, I just opened an online exchange meeting on sex education." Before being interviewed by a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily, Liu Wenli, the head of the children's sex education group of Beijing Normal University, had just discussed how to teach sex education with some elementary school teachers. Lesson experience.
Recently, Liu Wenli has become more and more aware that the school’s emphasis on sex education courses is constantly increasing. This change is mainly due to the formal appearance of “sex education” in the revised Law on the Protection of Minors that came into effect on June 1. .
The revised law on the protection of minors clearly states in the chapter "School Protection" that schools and kindergartens should carry out age-appropriate sex education for minors, and improve minors’ self-protection awareness and ability to prevent sexual assault and harassment .
This means that sex education has formally appeared in the laws of our country, and has gained stronger protection and support at the legal level.
Liu Wenli is very excited about the "ice-breaking" of sex education at the legal level, but she is more concerned about how the school will carry out sex education after the law is implemented, and how family sex education should be promoted, so as to jointly help minors improve their self-protection awareness and prevent sex. Infringe.
Sex education is written into the law
Statistics show that during the summer vacation is a period of high incidence of sexual abuse of minors.
Liu Wenli believes that there are many reasons. Parents are relatively relaxed in supervising their children during the summer, and sometimes they entrust acquaintances to take care of their children. This gives some people with ulterior motives an opportunity to take advantage of it; for older minors, both parties “steal the forbidden fruit”. "There are more behaviors.
Li Yinhe, a sociologist who has been concerned about the sexual protection of minors for many years, found that most cases of minors being sexually assaulted were accompanied by the lack of sex education.
“Children don’t have a correct understanding of sex, they don’t know at what age they can have sex, and they don’t know that they may face risks such as pregnancy after having sex. There are also children who dare not speak out even if they have been sexually assaulted.” Li Yinhe I have come into contact with a case in which a teacher sexually assaulted multiple girls for many years, but none of the girls told their parents or called the police.
"Sex education is difficult to completely prevent the occurrence of juvenile sexual crimes, but at least it can improve the ability of juveniles to protect themselves." Li Yinhe said.
Liu Wenli has a deep understanding of this. Since entering the field of sex education in 1988, she has been on this road for 33 years.
She said that there were also provisions on sex education in the previous law on the protection of minors, but the expression was relatively "euphemistic."
Article 13 of the Law on the Protection of Minors, passed on September 4, 1991, clearly requires schools to fully implement the national education program for adolescent education of minor students. This provision was revised in 2006 and 2012. Keep it.
In Liu Wenli's view, the expression "adolescent education" gives the public a feeling that sex education only begins during adolescence. In fact, sex education should start from childhood.
Therefore, since 2014, she began to write recommendations related to sex education, and entrusted the representatives of the National People’s Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference to submit them at the National People’s Congress and the National People’s Political Consultative Conference. She hoped that the expression of sex education would be used in the law so that she could face the issue of sex. topic.
The revised Law on the Protection of Minors clarifies the expression of sex education. Liu Wenli believes that this is a national affirmation of the concept of sex education. It is a good start, but it is far from the end.
Li Yinhe pointed out that the topic of sex has always been relatively sensitive in our country. It takes a process for the society to have a complete and scientific understanding of comprehensive sex education. The introduction of sex education into the law is an important step, and the prevention of sexual assault is only one part of sex education. Sex education also includes many aspects such as physiology and concepts. The promotion of future sex education must not only meet the public's need for sexual assault prevention education, but also actively popularize the concepts and connotations of comprehensive sex education.
Sex education should be gradual
Schools are an important place to carry out sex education, but the situation of sex education on campus has not been optimistic for a long time.
In Liu Wenli's view, school sex education requires "four elements", namely systematic class hours, special teaching materials, professional teachers and effect monitoring.
However, after visiting some schools before, she found that the development of sex education is not ideal. Most sex education in schools faces the "four nos" situation of no systematic curriculum, no formal teaching materials, no professional teachers, and no teaching monitoring.
"Some schools think that the content of the reproductive system in biology classes is equivalent to sex education, but sex education has a wide range of courses that can be replaced by non-biology courses and mental health courses." Li Yinhe added.
Some schools have also tried sex education. Liu Wenli was invited to the school to give lectures on sex education for students, but she believes that compared to systematic courses, the lectures are not as effective as sex education needs to be continuous, and some schools require only precautions. Intrusive content, which may intensify children’s fear of sex.
The revised Minor Protection Law has only been implemented for two months. Liu Wenli obviously feels that more and more schools want to offer sex education courses, including elementary schools, kindergartens and junior high schools. Many schools are preparing to devote special class time to sex education. .
"This is the result of the sex education law. We are currently designing sex education courses for several schools." Since 2007, Liu Wenli and his team have cooperated with a school for migrant children in Daxing District, Beijing to develop sex education courses. There are 6 class hours per semester, and a total of 72 class hours in 6 years of primary school. The effect of the courses is evaluated after the end of each semester. From the feedback situation, the adolescent transition of these children who have received sex education is relatively stable.
Liu Wenli said that sex education in most schools is still in its infancy, and it is unlikely to set up special sex education teachers. It is recommended that the teacher in the lower grades of elementary school be trained to take on the task of teaching; the upper grades of elementary school and middle school can be served by school mental health teachers.
In the long run, Liu Wenli suggested that sex education should be included in the compulsory courses of preschool education and teacher education, so that teachers can enhance their professional knowledge reserves.
The revised Law on the Protection of Minors mentions “carrying out age-appropriate sex education” for minors, which means that sex education needs to be carried out step by step, and age-appropriate sex knowledge should be taught at different ages.
From 2010 to 2017, Liu Wenli and his team successively published "Cherish Life-Primary School Students' Sexual Health Education Reader" and recommended it to schools. The content involved six major themes. With age, the focus is different.
However, Liu Wenli pointed out that this set of reading books can only be regarded as supplementary reading materials. If sex education is to truly enter the campus, there must be textbooks compiled and reviewed by the education department. What is the standard and what content is suitable for what age group. The support of the follow-up system.
Realize home-school linkage
Education advocates family-school linkage, and sex education is no exception, but "talking about sex change" is a true portrayal of many families.
In the novel "Fang Siqi's First Love Paradise" written by contemporary writer Lin Yihan, there is a very representative sentence, "There are two things in the world that parents will not talk to you, one is death, the other is sex."
According to a survey conducted by the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, more than 50% of parents have never mentioned sex-related content with their children.
"It's not that I don't want to talk, I don't dare to talk." A parent expressed his concern that he didn't know what language to use when telling his child about sex.
In Li Yinhe's view, parents' "covering" of sexual knowledge will make children understand it through other means, which is even more risky.
In previous cases of minors being sexually assaulted, few victims sought help from their parents, which was also related to the lack of necessary sex education for children since childhood.
"Parents should pay attention to the use of scientific language for their children's sex education, instead of using so-called common names. This will help children face up to sex knowledge, like learning Chinese and mathematics, and learn sex knowledge as a subject." Li Yinhe suggested Published some parental sex education books to help parents carry out sex education.
Nowadays, the revised Law on the Protection of Minors has made clear provisions on school sex education, and Liu Wenli suggested adding sex education to the draft family education law that is being formulated.
At this year's National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Xu Fengqin, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and vice president of Xiyuan Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, submitted a proposal to include sex education in the draft family education law.
In May 2019, nine departments including the All-China Women’s Federation and the Ministry of Education jointly issued a notice on the issuance of the National Guidelines for Family Education (Revised). The requirements for sex education were clearly set out in the guidelines for family education for children between 12 and 15 years old. In the paper, it is proposed that parents should be instructed to fully understand the knowledge of adolescent physiology and hygiene, and to carry out timely and appropriate sex education for children.
The description of sex education in the guideline shows that sex education is an important content of family education. Liu Wenli believes that as a special law for family education, sex education content should be added to the draft of the family education law, so that it can be compared with the revised law on protection of minors. The regulations on sex education in middle schools are echoed, and the linkage between home and school is truly realized in law.
Liu Wenli pointed out that compared with the Law on the Protection of Minors, the draft Family Education Law is easier to reflect the concept of comprehensive sex education. It is hoped that parents or other guardians of minors should attach importance to sex education to the physical and mental health of minors in the implementation of family education. The importance of development, the development of family sex education and other related expressions.
Li Yinhe agrees with this. She believes that clarifying the status of family sex education through legislation can make parents realize the importance of sex education and also make them realize that this is a responsibility that parents should not evade.
Comics/Li Xiaojun