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Sexual abstinence advocates oppose education materials

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Joanna Lei (雷倩) and a panel of educators and parents' representatives yesterday spoke out against what they characterize as excessively explicit sexual education material aimed at primary school children.

"Children that young are impressionable," said Lei, "showing them pictures of the sex act might cause them to mimic such behavior with disastrous consequences."

Reporters were shown an illustration from a Danish children's book, The True Story of How Babies are Made by Per Holm Knudsen.

The illustration will be used in a series of sex education materials produced by Mercy Memorial Foundation on the behalf of the Department of Health's (DOH) Bureau of Health Promotion (BHP), aimed at schoolchildren in grades five and six.

LOVE AND RESPECT

Even though the illustrations are simple cartoons, they are still inappropriate for children, said Yang Ke-ping (楊克平), president of the Cardinal Tien College of Healthcare and Management.

"There are things that separate human beings from animals," said Yang, "We should be teaching children about love and respect at that age, not sex."

Abstinence-only advocates, including some attendees at yesterday's news conference such as Yang and Rosa Marie Shiao (蕭慧瑛), the head of the abstinence education research and development department at Fu Jen Catholic University, previously spoke out against a sex-ed text aimed at junior high school students titled Youth Experts.

"The Youth Expert series was already in print when we found out about it," said Shiao, "but we still managed to stop it from reaching students."

TEACHERS' CHOICE

Deputy head of the BHP Wu Shiow-ing (吳秀英) defended the sex-ed series.

"The illustrations of sex acts appear in the teacher's edition of the material," she said, "the teacher can choose to present it to the children after giving them adequate context."

The series is aimed at fifth and sixth grade students, she said.

"By that time, many of the girls would have already gotten their periods," said Wu, "They are ready for this information."

The author of the book, Knudsen, said he is surprised that the use of material from his book, which was published in 1971 and has been translated into various languages, is generating controversy here in this country.

"If it is OK for Danish kids, why shouldn't it be OK for Taiwanese kids?" Knudsen told the Taipei Times. "I wrote the book for four-to-five-year-old kids because that is when they first start getting curious."
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