Between hormone-driven teenagers sexting in school and instructors inadvertently projecting lewd images in place of PowerPoints, sex somehow always manages to find its way into the classroom. But one expert says that pornography should have a permanent place in the sex ed curriculum.
According to Danish sexologist Christian Graugaard, students should view and discuss porn as part of Denmark‘s sexual education curriculum. The Aalborg University professor appeared on the public broadcast network DR with a proposal that would move current sex ed classes classes beyond “boring and technical” teaching methods, by showing pornography to eighth and ninth grade students.
Garugaard says the motion to bring adult entertainment into the classroom is aimed at helping teenagers become “conscientious and critical consumers” who can make the distinction between pornography and healthy sexual interactions. Garugaard wants to help them mediate the reality of sex with hardcore films, since studies show that 99 percent of boys and 86 percent of girls in Scandinavia have already viewed pornographic films by the time they’re 16.
“We should strengthen their ability to distinguish between the media’s depictions of the body and sex and the everyday life of an average teenager,” he told the Guardian.
Although this proposal might sound shocking to Americans, it’s par for the course in progressive Scandinavia. Earlier this year, Sweden took center stage in the discussion about sexual education after a cartoon featuring dancing genitals went viral. The clip was quickly followed up with an animated sequel that showed how babies were made.
Sexual education has been mandatory in Denmark since 1970, and some schools incorporate porn as part of their curriculum. But Graugaard wants a unifying standard in place. “It’s important that education meets certain quality standards all over the country, that teachers are well trained and that up-to-date methods are constantly developed,” the professor said.
Students also seem to be on board with the proposal. “I think you could get something out of it – for example the difference between real love between two people who have sex and hard porn and orgies from the US,” a ninth grade Danish student told the DR network. Or maybe they’re just looking for an excuse to watch porn in class.
H/T The Guardian | Photo via zionfiction/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)