Four years ago, Poland's left leaning politicians promised mandatory sexual education in schools. With a landslide victory, it seemed they had a mandate for these reforms, but in 2005 discussion on reform has come to a standstill. With the more conservative Tusk leading in the polls, it looks like these reforms will be set aside for at least another four years.
Regrettably, the current trends in Polish Sexual behavior suggest that something needs to be done, and whether you take a conservative approach or a liberal one, if you've seen the figures you know that change is needed. A suvey of 15-16 year old children revealed that 19 percent had already experienced sex. That number is up 4 percent from 4 years ago. Moving up a braquet, 51 percent of 17-18 year olds had already experienced sex, up 7 percent from previous years.
While conservative leaders argue that sexual education promotes and encourages inappropriate sexual behavior, the World Health Organization's data shows that thourough sexual education delays sexual behavior by young people.
The opposite sides of the political spectrum take these figures in different ways. Liberals say that without education in schools, children turn to peers, the media, or the internet for information. Conservatives are less concerned, contending that children turn to their parents or relatives for reliable sexual advice. Both options are unlikely to provide reliable, safe information.
The reason for this void is simple: to get the Church's support for Poland's ascention to the EU, the left leaning polititians had to make sacrifices. Also, both liberal and conservative authors submitted text books for use in classrooms, but no agreement could be made on which version was most appropriate.
Should he win, Donald Tusk will have to confront the issue of negative sexual behavior amongst teens, while walking a conservative tight-rope. |