Good Touch, Bad Touch

Many sexuality education programs focus only on reproductive health, neglecting other important aspects of sexuality such as gender identity, sexual orientation, feelings, and relationships.
For this reason, I have developed the "first step" of my sexuality education program for children aged 5-8 years, a non-sexist sexuality education that helps children to understand and respect their own and other people's bodies, and to develop healthy interpersonal relationships and self-awareness. This may be a small part of a comprehensive sexuality education program, but it has made me appreciate the value of design.

Sex education / touch / interpersonal communication / respect

Background

International organizations, including the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations (UN), among others, have developed goals and standards for sexuality education, and sexuality education programs should cover a wide range of topics, including sexual and reproductive health (sexually transmitted infections and adolescent pregnancy), interpersonal relationships, sexual orientation, and gender roles. In theory, these goals and standards should be met in every country in the world.

I spent my holidays visiting primary and secondary schools in three countries: the United States, Japan, and China; however, the actual spread of sex education is not as widespread as it should be due to significant differences in content, delivery, and organization between countries.

United States

When it comes to sex education, the US is in a disgustingly unequal state, with only 39 states requiring sex education and only 17 states requiring sex education to be medically accurate. Although the United States was the first country to introduce a 'comprehensive sex education', the vast majority of it remains in the realm of traditional sex education.

Japan

A six-year health education program is compulsory in Japanese secondary schools for students aged 12-18. This compulsory education covers only biological knowledge: human sexual anatomy, behavior related to sexuality, diseases, preventive behavior, etc.

China

Sex education is still optional in China. A few schools do provide sex education for young people in school, but this depends on the wishes of the school management and the quality of the education provided. Sex education tends to focus only on biological aspects.

Research Plan

Purpose of Interview Research

The methodology used in this study is descriptive and qualitative interview research, and my main main aim is to better understand the main current sex education and/or social phenomena in the three countries, while focusing on the holistic and meaningful specificities of real life.

Research Focus

Interviews with four sex educators from three countries and research into their sex education systems centred around the following eight areas.

Limitations

There are several limitations to this study. The number of participants was small, and they were selected from a limited number of public primary and secondary schools in one area of each locality. While the results of the study are illuminating - not least because the participants' backgrounds and experiences with sex education varied - they are not generalizable.

Interview

University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences

"At present, many teachers are confused about sex and gender factors, so they do not know what they are teaching and only teach according to the content of the sex education guidebook, which focuses on abstinence education, including AIDS prevention. This is typical of sex education in Japan."

University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan

Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences

“When I started my job, my manager told me which men I had to watch out for. For example, one boy always came over and hugged me when he saw me. Another boy would lick my chopsticks after lunch. I was shocked to see these behaviors. It was a thought-provoking learning experience for me. My colleagues and I discussed how to explain why these behaviors were sexual health risk behaviors. Through my professional lens, I was observing real-life issues related to sexuality, and maybe we need to think about how to tell them to be sensible in their relationships that are related to our health risk behaviors.”

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

Department of Human and Organizational Development

A male student and I had an after-school discussion that stuck with me: Most of what he felt was about sexually transmitted infections. I'm not sure if this is intentional, but a lot of what we cover seems to be, "Look at all these nasty diseases you can get from sex, so stay away!!!" There are some topics I really wish I'd been taught about, though. I wish we talked about L.G.B.T.Q. relationships. I wish we had covered sexuality and gender fluidity as well. Most of all, I wish we had taken this class more often so I could talk about these topics more easily.

Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE)

In previous research, I found that all participants felt that the content of their schools and sex education programs focused too much on abstinence and the biological aspects of sex. They felt that sex education should take a more holistic approach, focusing for example on feelings, emotions, relationships, and gender. These topics are relevant to many students' sexual maturation, socio-emotional development, and ongoing personal identity formation.
Therefore, in a society where there are issues and values related to sexuality, there is a need for comprehensive sexuality education and the following are the pedagogical tasks that should be covered in CSE as summarized by my research.

IDEATION

As there is still a long way to go to promote the development of comprehensive sex education, I have weighted the different objectives of sex education according to age groups. I plan to develop a curriculum for early sexuality education from the age of five and below, which is sexuality education that does not talk about sex, and which I believe is the first step towards comprehensive sexuality education.

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Project description:

As children, they learn by touching to distinguish themselves from the world. They touch everything with their mouths, hands, and skin. Sensation is a child's first experience of love. It is also the basis of human connection. We want children to grow up with healthy, intimate relationships. That's why the first step in sex education should be sensory-based relationship education. It helps children to understand and respect their bodies and the bodies of others, and to develop healthy relationships and self-confidence. Children will identify the private parts of the body, recognize the difference between good and bad touch, and understand how to respond to bad touch.

Sex education through puppetry allows them to learn in a fun environment, avoiding direct and awkward dialogue.

Age group:

5-8 years old

Leading question:

What is good touch and what is bad touch?

How can I protect my body from others?

How do I politely express affection through contact?

Touch Material

Class task: The Touch Book provides a variety of materials for children to touch. The book contains different natural materials such as cotton, towel, sandpaper, linen and fiber so that children can experience different sensations through touch.

Lesson time: 15 minutes

Teacher's guide: "We are going to experience different sensations of touch. Touch each material and think about how it feels.”

Good touch, bad touch

Classroom task: Ask your child to label each material as "good" or "bad" - Which materials are comfortable for you? Which materials make you feel comfortable and which don't? Once the children have made their judgments, the teacher will guide them and ask them to cut out the appropriate materials and stick them in the appropriate places in the book.

Lesson time: 15 minutes

Teacher's guide: "Make sure that the teacher gives positive feedback to the children when they describe why a material is "good" or "bad", but do not force them to have a fixed answer. "

Good touch, bad touch

Lesson time: 15 minutes

Teacher's guide: "Make sure that the teacher gives positive feedback to the children when they describe why a material is "good" or "bad", but do not force them to have a fixed answer. "

Making hand puppets

Class task: Under the teacher's guidance, the child makes a hand puppet using different materials and labels it with its body parts, including its hands, feet, belly, eyes, mouth, etc. The child can make a hand puppet from different materials and label it with his/her hands, feet, belly, eyes, and mouth. And, under the teacher's guidance, label their private parts. Neutral vocabulary can be used when labeling body parts to ensure that children can identify and label them correctly and without stress.

Lesson time: 30 minutes

Teacher's guide: "We are going to make a hand puppet that is a 'mini me'. Draw and label the body parts on the puppet.”

Putting "material" on hand puppets

Class task: Under the guidance of the teacher, the children choose the materials they like or dislike to stick on the puppets according to their real feelings. This is a very visual way for the children to understand their limits. The teacher or parents can guide the children to share why they chose a particular material to represent a particular body part. For example: "I don't like people touching my bum, so I'm going to put the material I don't like on my bum so people won't touch my bum.

Lesson time: 30 minutes

Teacher's guide: "Think about the parts of your body you don't like being touched. You can use the materials you don't like to represent those parts.”

Putting "material" on hand puppets

Class task: In conjunction with the second book, the storybook, children bring hand puppets and interact in a simulated scene. The storybook provides miniature models of bathrooms, playgrounds, hospitals, etc. Children interact with puppets in these scenarios to simulate real-life situations and to help them learn to say "no" when they are uncomfortable.
Lesson time: 60 minutes
Teacher's guide: "Let's play a story game. How would you behave in these scenarios? What parts of yourself can others touch? Why?"

Post-course exchange

Class task: At the end of the lesson, communicate with the children to explain "good touch" and "bad touch". The teacher can use simple language and examples to explain the private nature of the body and why some touches are inappropriate. This will help the children to understand how to make correct and friendly contact with others in different situations, build a good sense of interpersonal relationships and ensure that they know how to seek help from an adult if they feel uncomfortable or inappropriate.

Lesson time: 30 minutes

Teacher's guide: "Do you know the difference between a good touch and a bad touch? We all need to learn to respect other people's bodies and to protect ourselves.”

Final

This is my Good Touch Bad Touch curriculum for 5-8 year olds. I invited teachers from a private kindergarten in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, to experiment with this curriculum, which teaches children to identify private parts of the body, recognize the difference between 'body' and 'body', forms of interpersonal politeness, good and bad touch, and how to respond to bad touch. Sex education through puppetry allows them to learn in a fun environment, avoiding direct and awkward dialogue.

This is the first step in my comprehensive sexuality education program, and as I mentioned earlier, comprehensive sexuality education covers an extremely wide range of content and age groups, I have only taken a small step, and I hope to have the opportunity and resources to continue this project in my future postgraduate studies.

"This rope feels solid." "Let me touch it too."

I hate it when she touches my butt！I'll put some walnuts in there.

"If this were a bathroom, do you think your teacher could touch you here to help you have a bath?"