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A Review of Sexuality Education in China Introduction In the elementary and secondary schools in China, sexuality education, as a part of the health services, has traditionally been the responsibility of the school nurses. What they do is to provide one lesson of about 1 hour in the beginning of secondary school, showing the pictures of human body, and introducing basic knowledge such as the different features males and females have in the body. Boys and girls are separated in different classrooms in this class. After that, there¡¯s no follow-up consultations, and children don¡¯t want to talk about sex with adults either. However, in recent years, sexuality education has gain greater and greater attention among educators and researchers as one of the necessary services schools should provide and improve. This paper introduces the historical and cultural background for sexuality education in China, explores the current social situations for the development of sexuality education, and reviews the progress gained in recent years in this field. Historical and Cultural Background Sex has always been a topic that cannot be talked directly in Chinese culture. Although there is a large amount of literacy records in sex topics, the research on them is not encouraged. Books with descriptions of love stories were considered prohibited to unmarried girls in ancient China. In 1963, the premier of China once spoke out the importance of sexuality education for adolescence. He suggested that we should teach school age children correct sexual knowledge before they begin to develop and experience changed in their body. However, because of the disturbance of the Great Culture Revolution, the sexuality education was not developed eventually, and it became a blind spot in Chinese culture and education. The first action in sexuality education was in 1988 coming with the issuance of the Notice of Developing Sexuality Education in Secondary Schools by the National Board of Education. In 1992, the People¡¯s Republic of China Minors Protection Act was passed which provided the legal criteria for the sexuality education in school. Later in the September of 1992, in the publication of the Requirements of Health Education in Elementary and Secondary Schools, it divides the sexuality education into the following three aspects: sexual physiology, sexual psychology, and sexual morality education. Needs for Sexuality Education One basic need for sexuality education in elementary and secondary school is that the average age from which children¡¯s bodies begin to develop is earlier than that of some years ago. One research in China yielded that the average age of the school age girls having their first menstruate flow is 13.13 years old with the earliest at 9 years old.
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