Legislator slams sex education book

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on March 28, 2006. It reports that objections were recently raised in Taiwan against various terms used in a sex education book, which was published by the Ministry of Education for junior high students.

The book's contents were later removed from the ministry's official web site, despite the fact that printed copies of the book had only been distributed to the education bureaus of local governments and had not actually reached any student. The objections were raised by some parents, who felt that the terms were inappropriate. A number of very disturbing terms include "betel nut beauties" (young women who sell betel nuts on the street), "AV Actress (porn star) and "diao" (a Chinese word for penis, which is also used as a compliment that means "very cool"). Parents also complained about the definition of the word "home run" in the book as a sexual relationship. They were upset that the book asked students to "draw" their current and future sex lives.

Parents were particularly upset about this sentence: "Unmarried girls should have an abortion after pregnancy because girls are too young to be mothers. Furthermore, RU486 can be easily obtained." RU486 is a drug that can induce abortion in women.

Parents demanded that the Ministry of Education should remove the book from its web site at once, and that all printed copies should be recalled. While the ministry did so, its officials claimed that the book was written by experts and education workers for the purpose of teaching students correct concepts about sex. According to the officials, some parents actually praised the way in which the book was written, after it was first posted on the Ministry of Education's web site in January 2006.

The book's chief editor recently argued that the words in the text were actually far more conservative than those used by young people in their daily lives. Because junior high students already knew a lot about sex, the book's contributors felt that they should use words and phrases that would strike a chord with young readers. According to the chief editor, young people needed to learn about the importance of being responsible for their own sexual behavior. In order to help them deal with sex-related issues, the book had to come as close to real life as possible and be written in a creative way.

The book, for the most part, used comics to depict situations. These comics were followed with serious discussions on related topics. According to officials from the Ministry of Education, the words that upset parents were most likely in the comics.