Let's Talk About Sex (Or Not)

In a country as culturally conservative as South Korea, some people are demanding better and more widespread sex education for young people.  The current national curriculum is pretty terrible:

"In 2015, the Ministry of Education unveiled the National Level of School Sexual Education Standards as a compulsory nation-wide curriculum for teachers to follow. 

But the guidelines, which took the ministry two years to compile and cost 600 million won ($540,000), were met with backlash for its outdated and biased content. 

According to the material published, a possible reason for sexual violence is that 'women do not pay dating expenses and men want something in return.' It also stated that men have strong and impulsive sexual desires, and therefore, it is important for women to appropriately cope with the situation, putting the responsibility to prevent sexual assault on women. The material also advises victims of sexual violence to 'control their negative thoughts and to try to think positively.'

After backlash from the public, the ministry was forced to edit the material after a little more than a year, but organizations are still demanding that more revisions are made."

I mentioned to my students that while in high school and dating my first girlfriend, my mom drove me to the drug store to show me where and how to buy condoms.  And this wasn't out of any amount of sexual open-mindedness on her part, it was simply because she was terrified I'd get somebody pregnant.

A student responded with "that's a very American story."

Enough said.