Li Zhaoqing www. Primary and even middle school students receive next to no sex education, except the limited basic knowledge in their biology textbooks. However, adolescents are curious about their bodies and want to know more about the changes happening to them during puberty. Driven by this curiosity, some of them engage in relations with their peers without taking proper precautions, which can lead to unintended consequences including disease and pregnancy.
If they are informed about their bodies and the changes they are going through, will such incidents diminish? We cannot expect such things to stop completely, but at least young students will know the risk. They'll know sex can result in babies.
They themselves are still minors, who live on their parents' support, so how can they afford to support their own children? Sexual relations must be restricted within the framework of marriage and should not be something between two young school students. It's great to see the introduction of the human physiological make-up and the changes during puberty in the new textbooks in Wuhan.
It's necessary to give such lessons in primary schools to enhance their awareness of how to protect themselves, particularly for girls. Also, students will know how they came into the world, instead of being tricked by their parents with stories that they were found in a dust bin on the streets and then taken back home. Those who don't believe their parents' stories may try to find out the answers by themselves and the information they get may be misleading.
Liu Guoqiang www. Sex education is thus necessary and should not be discriminated against. Children see sex in a different way from adults. While adults debate on whether the sex textbook is too "straightforward," young students do need such a textbook to clear their doubts and confusions about sex.
