The Ministry of Education came under fire yesterday over material that will be used for the gender equality education curriculum in September for elementary and junior high students, which includes presentations on homosexuality, with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chu Fong-chi (朱鳳芝) saying that such content may not be suitable for young students.
“The contents of the material are very controversial and the ministry would set a very bad example for kids if they are misguided,” Chu told a press conference at the legislature. “The ministry should not put the material into use until all questions about it have been clarified and both teachers and parents are fully prepared for it.”
Chu was unhappy that the material attempts to explain to students from fifth grade up about different sexual orientations, while also telling students how to discover their own sexual orientation.
“Some of the content in the curriculum may better fit high school students,” Taipei City Teachers’ Association chairman Chang Wen-chang (張文昌) said. “As a professional teacher, I think the content is inappropriate for elementary and junior high school students.”
Union of Taipei Parents’ Associations president Lin Hsiao-yi (林曉儀) agreed with Chang.
“We’re not opposed to [discussion] of the gay issue or the ministry’s curriculum. As a parent, I just think that elementary school kids are too young to learn about it and putting it on the curriculum could confuse them,” she said.
Chu, Chang and Lin called on the ministry to revise the material and postpone the implementation of the curriculum.
Ministry of Education official Ko Chin-wei (柯金尉), who represented the ministry at the press conference, said the purpose of teaching about diverse sexual orientations was to allow students to learn to respect the rights of different people from a young age.
“Teachers and parents are worried because they do not fully understand what it is about. We will put more effort into communicating with the groups so that they can better understand why we are implementing this curriculum,” Ko said.
Gender/Sexuality Rights Association Taiwan secretary-general Wang Ping (王蘋), when asked by the Taipei Times for comment, said she fully supported teaching kids about gender issues from a very early age.
“Heterosexuality is often considered by mainstream society as ‘normal,’ and people actually start to discriminate against those who are ‘not normal’ when they are very young,” Wang said.
“For example, you can hear first graders already calling people ‘sissy’ and making fun of them. Therefore, I do think we should start teaching kids to respect different groups of people and to teach them what’s right and wrong when they’re still young,” she said.
Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association chairman Goffy, on the other hand, said those who are against teaching kids about different sexual orientations actually have a “twisted concept” of the issue.
“That ‘twisted concept’ is exactly what gender equality education is aiming to change,” he said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS