Your Weekly English Digest，嘻嘻哈哈的性教育不知所云，是該正視性別教育了！Put the Sex Back in Sex Ed

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這篇是去年十月上過的舊文，不過因為裡面有The Rule of Three示範，所以本周再度亮相。

禁欲在美國也是性教育的一環，這個字的英文是celibate，該怎麼使用呢？請看下面的例句：

Is it possible to stay celibate?
(yeah,  after menopause...it's called "post-menopausal celibacy...from coach Chloe)

After his girlfriend left him, he lived a life of celibacy. 

多閱讀論述性文章，可以學習作者的文字的調性與技法，這是一般同學在寫作時最缺乏的特質。選擇立場之後就要全速前進，透過例證強化說服力。這篇文章作者呼籲美國當局要正視性教育的問題，不能再嘻嘻哈哈打馬虎眼了，而且很多該說的都要說(包含肛交自慰與同性性交)，女性要了解生育力與職場生涯規劃之間的關係，性行為的後遺症與禁慾也得一併交代。唉，說來說去，台灣的性教育有做的比較好嗎？大家還不都是邊看「愛情動作片」邊摸索的過程中，胡亂度過我們的青春。

好好閱讀這篇文章吧，這是從時代雜誌TIME網站知名部落格下載的。

OPINION EDUCATION

TIME

Put the Sex Back in Sex Ed

When public schools refuse to acknowledge gender differences, we betray boys and girls alike

公立學校拒絕承認性別差異，就是背叛學生

Fertility is the missing chapter in sex education. Sobering facts冷靜嚴肅的事實 about women’s declining fertility生育率下降 after their 20s are being withheld from阻擋/不給人知道 ambitious young women, who are propelled along驅策向前 a career track devised for men.

The refusal by public schools’ sex-education programs to acknowledge gender differences is betraying both boys and girls. The genders should be separated for sex counseling. It is absurd to avoid the harsh reality避免殘酷的事實 that boys have less to lose比較沒什麼損失 from casual serial sex隨意連續的濫交 than do girls, who risk pregnancy and whose future fertility can be compromised by disease未來的生育率可能會因為罹病而受到影響. Boys need lessons in basic ethics基本的倫理 and moral reasoning道德推論 about sex (for example, not taking advantage of intoxicated dates), while girls must learn to distinguish sexual compliance性順從 from popularity受歡迎的.

Above all, girls need life-planning advice. Too often, sex education defines pregnancy as a pathology病理學, for which the cure is abortion. Adolescent girls青春期女孩 must think deeply about their ultimate aims and desires. If they want both children and a career, they should decide whether to have children early or late. There are pros好處, cons 壞處and trade-offs權衡取捨 for each choice.

Unfortunately, sex education in the U.S. is a crazy quilt of haphazard programs胡亂拼湊、缺乏計畫的課程. A national conversation is urgently needed for curricular standardization標準化課程 and public transparency公共透明度. The present system is too vulnerable太弱，以至於經不起 to political pressures政治壓力 from both the left and the right左派與右派–and students are trapped in the middle.

Currently, 22 states and the District of Columbia美國首府華盛頓特區 mandate命令 sex education but leave instructional decisions to school districts. Sex-ed teachers range from certified health educators to volunteers and teenage “peer educators” with minimal training非常少的訓練. Sex education has triggered recurrent controversy, partly because it is seen by religious conservatives as an instrument of secular cultural imperialism世俗的文化帝國主義, undermining moral values破壞道德價值. It’s time for liberals to admit that there is some truth to this and that public schools should not promulgate any ideology宣導任何意識形態. The liberal response to conservatives’ demand for abstinence禁慾-only sex education has been to condemn the imposition of “fear and shame” on young people. But perhaps a bit more self-preserving fear and shame might be helpful in today’s hedonistic享樂主義的, media-saturated environment.

Young people are now bombarded prematurely with sexual images and messages. Adolescent girls, routinely dressing in seductive ways, are ill-prepared to negotiate the sexual attention they attract.

First, anatomy解剖學 and reproductive biology生殖生物學 belong in general biology一般性通識生物學 courses taught in middle school by qualified science teachers. Every aspect of physiology生理學, from puberty to menopause從青春期到更年期, should be covered. Students deserve a cool, clear, objective voice about the body, rather than the smarmy拍馬屁/說好話的, feel-good chatter喋喋不休 that now infests充斥著 sex-ed workbooks.

Second, certified health educators, who advise children about washing their hands to avoid colds, should discuss sexually transmitted diseases性病 at the middle-school or early-high-school level. But while information about condoms must be provided, it is not the place of public schools to distribute condoms, as is currently done in the Boston, New York and Los Angeles school districts. Condom distribution should be left to hospitals, clinics and social-service agencies社福機構.

Similarly, public schools have no business listing the varieties of sexual gratification性滿足, from masturbation自慰 to oral口交 and anal sex肛交, although health educators should nonjudgmentally客觀的 answer student questions about the health implications of such practices. The issue of homosexuality is a charged one. In my view, antibullying campaigns反霸凌活動, however laudable值得稱頌的, should not stray into誤入 political endorsement政治背書 of homosexuality or gay rights同志權益 causes議題. While students must be free to create gay-identified groups, the schools themselves should remain neutral保持中立 and allow society to evolve on its own容許社會自行演進.

Paglia is the author of Glittering Images: A Journey Through Art From Egypt to Star Wars