Schools and sex education? "After HIV+ lecturers disinfect classrooms, teachers don't even know the risks of online dating," says founder of education project
Although it might seem that today's times are very open and there is a myriad of information freely available about sex, it is still a hot topic within the Czech education system. So what gave you the idea to organise lectures on sex education in schools?
It was my own experience. When I was in primary school, we had an age difference of two or even three years in our class. And that was a really big difference in terms of communication and the actual experience of sex life. Then in high school I was offered to do a lecturer's course with a focus on HIV/AIDS, which I accepted, and gradually I started to develop this practice in a way that I thought was necessary and beneficial.
When I think back to my school years, such lectures at school usually caused a big stir - not only among the students but also among the teachers. You also approach schools yourself with the offer of lectures - what is the reaction?
I don't want to pigeonhole in any way - and some schools are really exemplary and try to break out of that normal standard - but for a lot of schools, anything to do with sexuality is still one big taboo. One example for all of them - I was told in a bid call how can I even afford to offer such a program, that it is not appropriate to discuss sex in school. Teachers also very often call for clarification on what the lectures are actually about. I have also encountered the opinion that by talking about sex, we are actually encouraging students to have sex. And some teachers have also asked me to take the issue of social networking out of the lecture - they say that students don't discuss social networking unless someone tells them about it... And unfortunately - although I would like to say that this is an isolated case from smaller schools outside big cities - this is an example from Prague...
Does it happen that the "other side" takes the initiative - and do the teachers contact you?
Sometimes yes - but usually only after they have received a good reference from colleagues from other schools. And then there are also cases when the interest only arises with a problem, so it's too late to prevent it. For example, a situation where a 13-year-old pupil took pictures of her genitals as part of a cyberbullying campaign spread around the school. This can be prevented if you talk to your children about these potential situations beforehand. Give them information and show them the way to deal with it. Blaming it on the 'internet age' is just as bad as simply ignoring it.
None of this is a very flattering picture for the teaching profession, but on the other hand - aren't educators somewhat "innocent"? After all, the average age of Czech teachers is approaching 50. So these are people who studied many years ago, when sex education, let alone the risks of the Internet, was not something they could have done professionally...
To a certain extent, that's true. But it's a very complex problem of the whole education system, teachers in many cases have no idea what exactly to talk about and how to talk to children. And it's no wonder - nobody teaches them this in teacher education, even today. Even though some of them would talk to children about sex, they are afraid. One teacher admitted to me directly that she was aware of how powerful her word was, and that if she said something wrong, she might perhaps get something wrong. But it has to be said that this is not just a Czech problem, but a problem throughout Europe. Even though sex is perfectly natural and human, it doesn't seem to belong in school.
Does it?Shouldn't parents or other relatives give children the basic information?
In general, sex education certainly belongs in school. Schools should provide information frameworks, teach people to think about things - after all, it is an educational institution! Of course, parents should give children the basics, but the problem is that in practice this is not the case. So if children don't learn something at school, they don't learn it at all. In fact, everyone can now remember their own teenage years and how information about sexuality, safe sex, etc., came to them. For parents, talking about sexuality with their child is often very uncomfortable - and unfortunately it is passed down through the generations. If you grow up not talking about sex with your children, you are quite likely to approach your own children in the same way. So we're actually in a circle that we have to get out of. We live in a time where we have all the information at our fingertips, but we don't know how to work with it. So at Lajfr we try to show that sex is not just about the fact that a girl can get pregnant if she doesn't want to, or that you can get HIV during sex...
I confess that I graduated from high school quite a long time ago and the nuns came to lecture us about sex. It ended in a big conflict about abortion. I don't remember anyone discussing HIV with us. Are they teaching about the risk of infection today?
HIV is a huge bogeyman in science and biology. HIV is talked about in all schools and it's really the number one topic in the education system. It's also the easiest thing to talk about - teachers have to deliver the curriculum because of the curriculum frameworks and HIV is a relatively easy topic to grasp and it appears in textbooks. But unfortunately, the issue of safe sex is thus "reduced" to HIV only, no other STDs are taught. In addition, the teaching goes on as usual, students learn what the genital tract looks like, they learn that they can get HIV during sex. But where do they go if they suspect they have been infected? No one knows...
HIV is the bogeyman? After all, from the public arena it sounds rather the opposite - that thanks to modern antiretroviral treatment, which minimizes the viral load and extends the life expectancy of HIV-positive people to the level of the normal population, few people are afraid of infection today...
I would say it's all about the information one has. And he doesn't. Our HIV-positive lecturer told us that the teachers throw cups at him so that he doesn't get HIV. The cleaners disinfect the desks...
But if the education system itself doesn't have the information, how can it pass it on? Although various projects like LAJFR try to do something like this, they can hardly substitute the role of the education system, which clearly needs reform in many different areas, not just specifically in terms of sex education...
This is of course true as far as sex education specifically is concerned, there used to be at least a specific advisory body to the Ministry of Education, according to whose recommendations curricula were created. It was not ideal, but it was a certain line of communication, but that no longer works today. It is difficult to find someone with a sufficiently big name to lobby the ministry. So we're working with the schools to find out what's needed. Actually, it's kind of a bottom-up way. We tell teachers that it's great that they've decided to make a difference, we're delighted when they approach us for help - we've dealt with transition etc. Yes, we run into problems. With principals, teachers and parents. I've even had threatening emails from parents saying that they will report me to the police if I tell their children something unacceptable about homosexuality... That's why in the case of children under 15 we require the consent of their legal guardians - indeed, even today there are parents who will forbid their children from attending the lecture. And here we are again, what information should be given by the family and what children should learn at school...
For more information about Lukáš Rychetský's educational project, please visit projektlajfr.cz.
