Synopsis:
Before the retirement, Sam Bo is worrying about his fellow junior police officer, Haeri, who is showing jealousy toward other junior police officers. Not worrying about Haeri, Han Jung-O is provoking the hatred of the parents of the high school students since she has talked about different perspectives about the sexual education that the parents thought of. Sang Su keep tells Jung-O to apologize to the high school parents, but Jung-O has no doubt that she was right about giving the sexual education. Sang Su did not understand the reason why she was being so stubborn; however, after hearing the reason why she could not give up not to apologize, he is remorseful.
Discussion:
While knowing the fact that the sex education in Korean society is not common, adults tend to conceal the reality of the sexual activities to their teenagers. In Episode 14, it addresses an urgent problem that could be resolved momentarily but still is an ongoing problem. I personally believe that giving proper sex education to teenagers is an important factor to the teenagers’ lives who are growing up as the grownups. Talking about the ways of the protections of sexual intercourses, preventions of sexual assaults, types of birth control pills, and so on should not be considered as ‘embarrassing’ topics to discuss about but ought to be ‘naturally’ reviewed among the parents and children.
In Episode 14, we can easily see the perspective of Korean parents about the sex education. For example, Jung-O made the high school students’ parents infuriated because she mentioned the proper ways to educate teenagers about sex. They first asked the police officers about the ways to avoid the sexual assault or attack. And then, they answered their own question by giving an example of installing more surveillance cameras around the school. If so, would there be zero percent of the sexual assault? Of course not! Because of parents’ and teachers’ hesitation, it may lead the teenagers to get even more improper ideas about sex from all kinds of different sources such as pornographic videos, magazines and internet (Sohn and Han 2002, 46).
Personally, I attended international school in Korea and my school provided a proper sex education since I was in an US curriculum-based school with American teachers. However, there were one incident where one girl got pregnant and she dropped out of school to get the abortion. EVEN receiving a proper sex education could still lead the students to make mistakes; yet, I believe that giving out a proper sex education can lead the students to make less mistakes such as using protections. At least, students who have received the sex education tend to have less sexual activities than those who did not (Sohn and Han 2002, 55). It is impossible to drop the percentage of making mistakes to zero, but with adults’ help, adolescents can make the right decisions.
In conclusion, receiving a proper sex education is a very important factor in adolescents’ lives in order to grow up as mature adults. In order to give them the appropriate sex education, adults should be additionally educated and receive adequate training and guidelines to become more comfortable delivering such important information that could actually change students’ lives (Soh and Han 2002, 58).
Largely, we could think about these questions:
- Do you think there are specific reasons why most of Korean parents do think that sex education is not as important as their child/children getting into college? Or is it all like this in Asia? What are the differences between Asian and Western cultures about this education?
- If you were a Korean parent who has a child who is a senior in high school, do you think that you are able to sit him or her down and educate them about sex? (Imagine to be in a position where people hide information about sex education).
Word Count: 530
Bibliography:
- Aeree Sohn, and Hee Jeong Han. “Adolescents’ Sexuality and School-Based Sex Education in South Korea.” Journal of Korean Society for Health Education and Promotion19 (December 2002): 45-60. Accessed October 31, 2018.
These questions are super interesting! In Korean society, the pressure to get into college is extremely high, and parents acknowledge that students are under immense pressure to make grades. I think that Korean parents may turn a blind eye towards their children’s coping habits, as long as they are succeeding in school. However, this is no excuse to skip out on educating their children on safe sex practices! In many conservative societies, like South Korea, sex education is often considered taboo, though I don’t quite understand why. Young adults will continue to engage in sexual activity, whether or not they have been educated about safe sex practices. This is not an Asian or western societal problem, this is much more of a global issue. Perhaps the conversation is a bit more unconventional in Asian society, where sex is highly privatized. But even in western society, this conversation is not as common. I think this is due to the fact that the conversation around safe sex practices is a bit uncomfortable. However, I believe it is the parents’ job, regardless of societal pressure, to educate their children, no matter how uncomfortable or taboo it may be. With this education, young adults will be able to make more informed and safer decisions. (Word Count: 210)
If I were a parent, I would properly educate my children about sex by talking with them or even taking them to the centre where the professionals would properly teach them every information. In order to protect my children from committing sexual crimes or having to do abortion, I would not care if others think it is not the right thing to do for their children because I think it is. I personally think that the reason why the abortion rate and the STD rates in Korea are rising is because of children not receiving proper sex education and also able to easily see inappropriate things from not very reliable sources. I personally think that Korean students these days think too simple about sex, do not really pay attention to protections and it seems that they are not able to control their desires and just do it if they want to, just like animals. Some thinks that by having sex, they think they have matured and also think that they are cool. Some students easily sell their bodies to have sex for money without the proper protections, because they need money and it is easy and quick to get large sums of money. These all conclude to the problems of parents not teaching children about sex and protections. If they did receive proper education, these incidents would not be happening often like today.
I think most Koreans have a prejudice towards sex. They think that sex is bad, so they do not educate proper education about sex such as contraception, but they educate how the abortion is bad and how sex brings negative impacts on both women’s and men’s bodies. Therefore, not getting proper sex education, as the documentary from the last lecture showed, many Koreans try to avoid sexual questions when they interview about that, even though Korea is one that condom is sold a lot in a day, as Dr. Saeji mentioned. I learned sex education in both Korea and Canada when I attended high school. I learned the negative impacts of sex in Korea, whereas I learned how to use condom and how to practice contraception in Canada. Personally, I think that the sex education that I got in Canada is more useful because I do not think the sex is not bad and it is a way to express love, so not to have an abortion, people should know how to use contraception properly beforehand. However, if I were a parent, I cannot teach them about sex education because I may feel shy to teach it, even though it is not a bad thing. Thus, I think that the government should change the curriculum about the sex education, so children should be educated properly about sex from school. After they get proper sex education, and if they ask me the question about the sex, I can teach them it is right or wrong.
(word count: 254)
Even if I were a Korean parent with a child in junior year of high school, I think I would and I should be able to sit him or her down and educate them about sex. There are many dangers that adolescents may encounter thinking they are old enough to handle those dangers. If not properly taught in school, I think it is the parents’ duty to guide the kids to reach better decision. I understand that the culture lacks and has become one of the norms to perceive sex as bad, and why it would be hard for a person in the society to become the different parent. But many know that by sacrificing the awkward moment, they may be able to prevent further troubling mistakes such as addition of sexual diseases. Topic of parenting and sex education is widely researched and studies show that parenting moderates how the kids react to sex or sex related films (Kim and Lee 2010). As discussed in the lecture also, more and more people encounter sex at earlier age, surprisingly which the trend is also seen in Korea, I think sexual education has become more needed than ever and as a parent, I would put myself to educate my kids and help them get a grasp of what is appropriate or not.
Just imaging to be in a position where I have to sit down and talk to my future child about this already makes me nervous. I think it would be one of the most uncomfortable parent to child sit-downs for both of them. However, if I am in a position where information about sex education is being hidden, I will talk to them about it and the importance of protecting one’s own body and the consequences that follow without proper protection. Controlling sexual activities are, in my opinion, an impossible task as people, including students, will engage in these activities whether or not laws are implemented to prevent sexual activities. Instead of going down the wrong path and being confronted with responsibilities that children cannot handle, I think it would be wise to educate them first and even give them the source of protection. While this action might promote sexual activities and give the children a nuance that sex is normal for their age, it is significantly better to engage in sexual activities with full knowledge than just jumping in bed with nothing in their head.
1. Do you think there are specific reasons why most of Korean parents do think that sex education is not as important as their child/children getting into college? Or is it all like this in Asia? What are the differences between Asian and Western cultures about this education?
Hi, I really appreciate that you guys all agree with the essentiality of sex education to students! I also strongly support that the government and parents should take responsibilities to inform the knowledge about sex activities including the dangers and protection to those who are about to step in their adult world. The reason I think Korean parents pay less attention on sex education to their children is because most of them either didn’t receive the sex education when they were young, and in their age, women were expected to be in relationship with only one man, while nowadays, free love makes people be less responsibility to themselves and easily results in a tragedy. In terms of responsibility, what I notice that even in the contemporary Korea, people rose their awareness to provide sex education, however, their subjects are mainly girls. Specifically, they educate girls how to reject the sex intention from guys or protect themselves which is correct, but they rarely educate boys that they should be responsible and have their condoms when having sex (even using condoms should be the awareness of girls). I think the high rate of abortion in Korea is related to the theme of shame. I agree with Sophie’s point that even girls who receive proper education on sex, they will also involve in the abortion issues. There are lots of girls in China did the abortion hiding from their parents, the reason is they are shame about what happened even they were educated on sex before. Overall, the discussion is quite interesting and meaningful.
Do you think there are specific reasons why most of Korean parents do think that sex education is not as important as their child/children getting into college? Or is it all like this in Asia? What are the differences between Asian and Western cultures about this education?
I think it is mostly due to old remnants of asian society where women are expected to be virgins until marriage, so sex education is seen to be unheeded as kids arent expected to have sex before marriage. In addition it is seen as somewhat of an instinctual activity so education isnt as needed. In western culture except for religious members sex is seen as a normal part of life and there is less taboo to having sex before marriage so education on sex education is seen as needed to prevent pregnancies or sexually transmitted diseases from occuring.
Cormac Chui
Squad 38
Dear all,
Just a point that if you use in-text citations, to make sure that you have a bibliography entry afterward (otherwise we won’t know what the former is referring to). I appreciate everyone sharing their opinions candidly and it seems like we’re largely in agreement on this one.