Beyond sex education 101

By Kim Choong-han

Has a child ever asked you, “What is sex?” How would you feel? In terms discussing this subject, Koreans tend to be reluctant.

In our society, we still have a stigma about sex based on our strict Confucian culture. Therefore, we’ve believed that bringing up the topic of sex is so uncomfortable that it’s better to keep immature young people in the dark. This misconception has influenced sex education in public schools.

As a result, people are growing up without appropriate respect for or clear understanding of sexual matters, which should be considered a beautiful act between two responsible, consenting adults. Additionally, there is a strong connection between a lack of relevant sex education and a dramatic increase in sex offenses against women and children over the past few years.

According to a recent statistic by the Gender Equality and Family Committee, 52 sexual crimes are reported every day, and the number of cases of sexual harassment is on the rise. What is worse is that the age of offenders is becoming much younger.

In a recent court case, a husband was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for spousal rape using a knife to force his wife to have sex with him. There have also been a number of date rapes reported frequently on television news. Those cases embody a dark side of reality that reflects a lack of adequate sex education from early childhood. It’s about time our government took countermeasures not only to tackle these problems but provide our citizens with proper education.

In contrast, Germany, Denmark and the U.S. are aware of the significance of sex education at an early stage. For example, in Sweden, the government made it mandatory for 4-year-old kindergarteners to be educated with illustrated books showing pictures of male and female bodies to explain the functions of each part. They also teach about pregnancy, puberty, hormones, masturbation, venereal disease and contraception with regard to students’ physical growth. They even distribute free condoms to junior high school students.

In American schools, some students are required to care for a robotic baby for a week. The aim is to make students realize how difficult it is to raise an infant. That experiment has achieved remarkable success, changing students’ perspective about pre-marital sex and contraception.

On the other hand, in Korean schools we’ve only had sex education allocated for 10 hours each year, now that time will increase to 15 hours in 2013 owing to renewed interest. Nevertheless, we need more time and money spent on both sex education and qualified teachers to provide our students with more useful information. But many experts have been pinpointing that the current approach focuses more on theoretical video clips and prohibiting any sexual relations rather than teaching students how to protect themselves from potential pregnancies, STDs, sexual harassments and assaults.

We’re living in a sexually charged generation in which celebrities wearing sexually suggestive outfits are to be seen regularly. This, to some extent, influences young school girls who are subject to follow their favorite celebrities’ fashion styles without consideration that might be viewed by uneducated potential criminals as sexual innuendo. To resolve this, we should discipline our school girls to be thoughtful about their image, and boys should understand that the way girls dress is never an invitation.

Koreans can overcome these shortcomings. In addition to the government altering curriculum to include more practical teaching methods, there should be more social counseling programs for school dropouts and unmarried teen mothers. Parents also should be open-minded and take the importance of home training into account even though they are uncomfortable discussing sex.

Lastly, individuals should recognize boundaries, respect comfort zones and realize when they have crossed the line. More education and awareness can make our society one of the safest places in the world.

The writer lives in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, and is the father of a respectable young son. He can be reached at kch2112@daum.net.