Sex - Can the Classroom overcome off campus Influences?

I am all for education. I am sure we have all heard the different myths that different cultures have about how girls get pregnant, home spun beliefs that certain positions and actions will prevent pregnancy and the same mis-guided beliefs to keep from getting STD's. Educated people recognize these false premises and think that proper education of these uneducated groups of people will have a significant effect on their sexual behavior.

I am all for education. But, from my understanding of history and when I continue to hear about current human sexual behavior that continues to occur even with strong outside influence to curb it, I must ask why.


I read this today: China Communists sacked for having too many children: state media

See article below.

While this article does not directly speak to the level of education of the people effected, one would think that in a group that contained "seven national and local lawmakers or political advisors" and "More party members, celebrities and well-off people", there would be a cursory level of sex knowledge.


But it does speak to a 30 year plus, "harsh punishments and brutal methods to enforce it", policy that for some reason "has been routinely ignored in recent years in rural areas, while increasing numbers of China's urban new rich have been able to afford the requisite fines for violating the rules."

When one looks at sexual behavior of groups of people, cultural, social and economic factors may have more influence than sex education.

Are we to believe that if these people that violated the government policy had more sex education, they would not have had more than one child?

Is one to believe that these parents were not educated in the policy? And, since education didn't work, harsher consequences and polices will follow.

Understanding true influences on sexual behavior may be a key on how to effectively address changing it.



Article in full:
"Authorities in a central China province have expelled hundreds of people from the Communist Party or their government posts for having more than one child, state media said Monday.
At least 93,084 people in Hubei province last year had more children than they were allowed under the policy of one per family, Xinhua news agency said quoting the provincial family planning commission.

They included 1,678 officials or party members, it added, saying about 500 had been expelled from the party and 395 stripped of their official posts.

Previous reports said the officials had also been fined.

The violators included seven national and local lawmakers or political advisors, Xinhua added.

"More party members, celebrities and well-off people are violating the policies... which has undermined social equality," commission director Yang Youwang was quoted as saying.

No information was given as to the punishments meted out to the more than 90,000 other people in Hubei who violated the "one-child" policy last year.

China's family planning policy began in the late 1970s as a way to control the world's largest population, now at 1.3 billion people.

Generally, urban families can have one child and rural families can have two if the first is a girl. About 400 million births have been averted thanks to the policy, the government has said.

But in recent years the policy has been routinely ignored in rural areas, while increasing numbers of China's urban new rich have been able to afford the requisite fines for violating the rules.

Chinese parents have traditionally favoured large families -- and sons, in particular -- to support them in their old age.

The policy has been notorious from the start for the harsh punishments and brutal methods used to enforce it, such as forced late-term abortions and the sterilisation of women.

Several areas of the poor southern province of Guangxi erupted in riots last year after officials launched a harsh crackdown to enforce the policy, with residents saying forced abortions were among the methods used by authorities.