By YANG WANLI

记者 杨万丽

“No premarital sex. That was the education or social principle that I received in my childhood,” said Zhu Guizhen, a retired primary school teacher in Kunming, the capital of the southwestern province of Yunnan.

         朱桂珍是云南省昆明市的一位离休小学教师。她谈到性教育时说道：“我小时候学校和社会在性教育上就是一个原则：不能有婚前性行为。”

“When I was in high school, girls used to spit on boys who displayed affection toward them. It was widely seen as a way of showing a girl’s purity. Premarital sex was very rare in my generation,” the 59­year­old said.

          “我上高中那会儿，要有男孩子对女孩子示爱，女孩子会向他吐唾沫。以此来表现自己的纯洁。婚前性行为在我们那个年代非常少见。”这位59岁的老教师解释道。

For thousands of years, sex was not discussed openly in China. Even today, it is taboo. There is no sex education in schools, only lectures on psychological health with little practical knowledge. Parents also avoid discussing the issue with their children because they don’t know how to do so.

Zhu didn’t realize how important sex education was until a students’ protest occurred the year before her retirement in 2013.

几千年以来，“性”在中国都是一个不能够公开谈论的话题，即便到了今天，许多学校仍旧把“性”当作禁忌。 学校里没有性教育课，唯一与之相关的恐怕就是没有多少实用知识的心理健康讲座了。家长也回避与子女谈论“性”。2013年朱老师退休之前她的学生当中爆发的一次小规模抗议事件使她认识到性教育的重要性。

“Students from a class in grade five wrote dirty words on the blackboard to protest against their teacher who had called some of the girls‘dirty’ and ‘flirtatious’ because they wrote love letters to boys,”she said, recalling that nearly half of all the students in the class claimed to have ‘fallen in love’ after the protest.

          朱老师回忆道：“五年级某个班的学生在黑板上写下骂老师的话，起因是老师称给男孩子写情书的女生‘肮脏，轻浮’。”抗议事件过后，这个班有超过半数的学生都表示自己“喜欢某个人”。

“I was shocked, and I suddenly realized how important sex education is. Children today are different from my generation. They have more opportunities to explore love and sex and express their curiosity and attitudes. But the problem is: none of us learned sex education before and nobody knows how to explain it, so what we can teach them?” she said.

          “我当时真的很震惊，也突然间意识到性教育的重要性。现在的孩子跟我们那个时候可是不一样了。他们探索爱与性的机会更多，也更善于表达他们的好奇心和对待事物的态度。那么问题来了：我们这些老师之前没有人了解性教育，也就没有人知道怎么跟孩子谈“性”, 那性教育课怎么上呢？”

“I believe sex education should be included in China’s education system as soon as possible. Awareness of physical and psychological health are as important as knowing about science, culture and the arts,” she added.

         “我觉得性教育要尽快融入到中国的教育体制中去，生理和心理健康意识的觉醒与学生学习科学，文化，艺术知识同样重要。”朱老师说道。

Based on her 33 years of teaching experience, Zhu suggested that sex education should start at primary school or even earlier; usually at the time children first begin to notice gender differences between males and females.

          基于33 年的教学经验，朱老师认为性教育在小学阶段，甚至孩子更小一些就要开始；通常当孩子开始注意到男女之间的区别时，就是我们应该开始对他们进行性教育的时候。

“I think the biggest challenge is not how to approach children with the relevant knowledge, but whether both parents and teachers can leave bashfulness and the bias about sex education to one side, and be open and talk about it without embarrassment,” she said.

          朱老师的观点是：“我觉得我们面对的最大挑战不是怎么让孩子接触相关的性知识，而是家长和老师是否能够把面对性教育时的忸怩和偏见放在一边，开诚布公的大方谈论这个话题。”

My 9­year­old son started to ask me questions about sexual behavior when he saw animals having sex on a TV documentary. I didn’t know how to respond. We hope such knowledge can be taught in schools.”

          “我儿子九岁。有一次看电视纪录片时看到动物交配他就开始问我关于性行为的一些问题，我不知道怎么回答。希望学校能教一些这方面的知识。”

Jiang Jun, a parent who participated in his first sex education class at the Dujiangyan Dingxin New Primary School in Sichuan province.

            蒋军是四川省都江堰顶新新建小学的一位学生家长，他在孩子的学校上了有生以来第一堂性教育课。

24 percent of respondents had engaged in premarital sex, according to a six­province survey of more than 5,000 students ages 12 to 24, which was launched by the Sichuan Sex Education Society in 2014.

          2014年四川省性教育学会发布的一项调查结果显示，全国六个省5000多名12至24岁的受访者中，有24%表示有婚前性行为。

Experts Urge Age Appropriate Action

性教育：要分年龄段

In the Netherlands, sex education, or more accurately education about sexuality, begins at the earliest levels of schooling, according to Zhang Meimei, professor of sex education at Capital Normal University in Beijing.

           北京首都师范大学的性教育教授张玫玫老师指出，在荷兰，孩子一进入学校，性教育课就开始了。

Far from young people running wild, however, the type of sex education promoted in the Netherlands has resulted in one of the lowest teenage pregnancy rates in the world (six births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19), according to the World Bank.

          荷兰的年轻人并未因性教育开始得早而变得放纵，相反，性教育的推广让荷兰成为少女怀孕率最低的国家之一（据世界银行数据显示，每1000个15至19岁的荷兰女性中只有六人妊娠）。

Zhang said comprehensive sex education should be age­appropriate:

           张教授说，全面的性教育应该分年龄段实施：

•Kindergarten (ages2to6): Children are taught about body parts, the physical differences between males and females, and privacy around body issues.

            幼儿园阶段（2到6岁）：这一年龄段的孩子要了解身体部位，男女之间的生理区别，身体隐私等方面的知识。

•Primary school (ages 6 to 11): Body development during puberty, basic social conventions of privacy, nudity and respect for others in relationships. Knowledge about human reproduction may also be available.

           小学阶段（6至11岁）：小学的孩子们要了解青春期身体的发育，社会习俗对于隐私，裸体方面的看法，以及两性关系中对于对方的尊重。人类生殖方面的知识也可以在这一阶段涵盖。

•High school (ages 11 to 18): Safe sex and contraception, understanding what makes a positive relationship and what makes a bad one. The class may include an introduction to gender pluralism.

           中学阶段（11至18岁）：中学生的性教育要包括安全性行为及避孕措施，理解什么是良性及非良性的两性关系。课程里也可以包含性别多元化的内容。

•College (18 and older): Gender roles in society, expressing oneself, desires and boundaries, how to handle close relationships with others.

           大学阶段（18岁以上）：大学生们要了解社会性别角色，学会如何表达自己，了解自己的欲望，给自己的行为设定界限，正确处理和他人的亲密关系。