Sexual education as the reflection of public life and sexual culture in Russia in 2002  

1. Two models of education in Russia

The educational system in Russia, as well as in some other countries, is based on two models, or traditions. According to the first one, education is arranged from the "top". State, aristocracy, and church define the framework for the educational system striving to instill values in children compatible with the existing ideology. This education by its nature is always conservative, and any attempts to change status quo are fiercely resisted by the system supporters. The system approves violence in this or that form; it is based on dogmas and often lacks good methodology, since it relies on compulsion rather than on good argumentation and encouraging students to explore. The Soviet school would delegate the authority to carry out disciplinary actions to the parents. To achieve this, remarks in the students mark books, summoning parents to the school, and even letters to their place of employment were used. To some extend, this tradition still pervades in the contemporary Russian school.
The second model is democratic. Parents are perceived as customers who pay for their children's education directly (as in private schools) or through taxes. This model is more flexible, which sometimes makes the study less systematic. Still, such school is better geared to prepare children and teenagers for the real life, since it is focused not only on the bulk of knowledge but also on developing children, catering for their health, and psychological condition.
When comparing these two models, the main areas of attention are the goal of the educational activities and the way a child personality is approached. Traditionally, there is a wide gamut of goals: "to prepare students for life", "to instill good values", "to bring up people with strict moral"; it is believed that the secondary school is first and foremost the "source of basic knowledge which should also be accompanied by moral and values". Those in favor of the democratic model see the educational goal in a wider context. They believe that the only ultimate goal of education is freedom.
In order to understand the contemporary Russian school one should remember that both before the Bolshevik revolution and during the Soviet rule the educational principles were based on the first model, conservative and inflexible. This tradition has gained a significant momentum and continues to prevail, though some changes are being slowly introduced.
Some experts believe that it is impossible to change the traditional system by merely embracing some improvements unless individual rights of students and freedom as the ultimate goal are accepted. The traditional system neglects children's rights viewing them as "a vessel to be filled with knowledge". This explains why even the most brilliant projects and ideas developed within the democratic system framework will not be accepted by the traditional system. Their acceptance threatens the very existence of the conservative system. The proof for this point is the failure to introduce sexual education in Russian secondary and high schools.

2. A historic overview

It would be unfair to say that Russian education has never had any courses that covered sexuality. For instance, since 1924, when "12 sexual commandments for the revolutionary proletariat" were published (which were viewed as some sort of Code designed to regulated relations between males and females of the proletariat background) and up to 1936 some schools had classes of sexual education based on Sigmund Freud theory. However when Freudianism was declared a false doctrine in Russia this educational trend was interrupted and many professors, methodologists, and sponsors of such education were repressed. At the same time, books and popular brochures by Russian and foreign authors were published with the circulation of 5-10 thousand copies where gender related issues and sexually transmitted diseases were discussed. As Stalin's power grew stronger at the end of the '20s, such publications were halted. So, since the '30s and up to the USSR collapse there hasn't been any special classes on sexuality, erotic literature has been declared pornography, and the censorship has been ravaging.
After the USSR collapse when democracy stepped in the situation changed. Gender behavior of females and males became more liberal and versatile. General public encountered that, which was previously unthinkable - a course preparing students for married life was introduced, erotic media appeared, nudity societies were registered, sex shops, erotic clubs and theaters were opened. At the same time, negative sides surfaced, which always accompany transitional periods and crises in social life and economy. It was revealed that the level of prostitution and violence is high, sexually transmitted diseases including HIV are widely spread, and birth rate is rapidly declining.
Opinion polls showed that the vast majority of adults do not object systematic education of sexually related matters: 81 % of those asked are in favor of such a class for teenagers between 14 and 16, whereas only 10 % of respondents are against. Opinions are deeply influenced by the age and the level of education: 70 % of those younger than 25 showed almost unanimous support for such course, while only 32 % of those older than 55 favored the idea. Approximately the same pattern was achieved during numerous polls conducted among teachers and parents.
In the '90s, the Russian Federation Ministry for General and Professional Education initiated a research aimed to determine the knowledge base of teenagers on the matter and patterns of their sexual activities. The results of this research were used to produce experimental programs of sexual education in a lot of cities. A book was published with a circulation of 35 thousand copies, which included four programs by different authors, namely a sexologist, a psychologist, an educational specialist, and a children's writer, and then distributed to the country's schools. One program was particularly designed for first graders. Many schools started to employ specialists in education and psychology. A course named "Ethical and Psychological Aspects of Married Life" was introduced, programs for sexual education were being developed. Still, most of the schools remained uninfluenced by this activity.

3. An attempt to introduce sexual education in the secondary and high school

Bodies of the Health Ministry and the Russian Association for Family Planning, supported by the International Association for Family Planning and UNESCO are believed to be the first ones who assumed an active position in brining sexual education to schools.

First, it is worth mentioning that the level of sexual culture is determined by economic, social, religious, and political factors. Promotion of any more or less large sexuality-related project always affects the areas which influence the sexual culture. When one of such projects was introduced in the '90s, the project coordinators obviously underestimated the importance of this precondition.

At that time it was believed that to be a success, any educational program needs to be initiated by the respective ministry or at least should not contradict to the existing educational regulations. In 1996, the Ministry of Education developed an all-Russia project "Sexual Education for Russian Secondary and High School Students". The project was designed by sociologists, psychologists, counselors, and managers from the Netherlands center "Organon" and supervised by sexologist I. Kon. Yaroslavlj along with some other cities decided to test the Dutch program to which end the Center for Sexual Culture was created. It was later transformed into medico-pedagogical educational establishments. Some programs were performed with participation of SIECUS. It was planned that sexology as a mandatory course for all 11 grades would be introduced in 2000. Unfortunately, this didn't happen.

From the very beginning the project coordinators encountered bureaucratic resistance. Officials in the Ministry of Education procrastinated with decision making and signing the necessary papers. The most serious impediment was lack of specialists ready to implement the program at school, since teachers themselves refused to do this job.

The project drawbacks were being removed along the way. Pilot regions and several schools in Yaroslavl were chosen to become the testing ground for the sexual education program. The programs were approved by the Educational authorities at Yaroslavl city administration, but the program coordinators didn't take trouble to familiarize the children's parents with the curriculum. Plus, parents didn't know that their children would be dispensed from studies and would be sent without fail to medico-pedagogical educational establishments for one or two weeks. Students in some schools were offered to fill out questionnaires to determine their level of knowledge on sexuality. When the content of the questionnaires became known to their parents, some of them expressed their indignation in the local and national media outlets. It was argued that introducing sexual education at school is undermining parents' authority. Later it was also discovered that the medico-pedagogical educational establishments in question had no federal licence what so ever.

All these drawbacks were used without delay by opponents of sexual education. The project was financed by money received via international grant. When the government proposed to allocate sums for sexual education, the Patriarch stepped forward to oppose such education. The media outlets became the battle field. Priests criticized the project and offered their services for the youth upbringing. The fact that the project authors didn't foresee possible political implications of its development, became its weak spot when attempts to secure budgetary funds were made. The project opponents were successful in adding political flavor to the scandal. Allegations were made that "western intelligence services along with pharmaceutical companies are using sexual education and contraceptives not only to pervert but also to exterminate Russian people!" During this absurd and slanderous campaign the Russian Association for Family Planning was labeled as a "satanic establishment". The narrow and religious ideology won this battle. The project was closed. The only ones who approved this educational experiment were the Yaroslavl students who despite everything receive a chance to acquire interesting and useful knowledge.
To sum up, sexual education was tried to be incorporated into the existing educational system. This led to a collision of political and economic interests of several social groups. Facts about depopulation in the country, organizational mistakes, and negative attitudes of a limited number of people were used in this clash.

4. Experimental results

Most experts have admitted that in order to produce a correct educational program one should consider distinctive features of a child's sexuality. If they are neglected, two types of educational mistakes can be made. The first one is when normal development is viewed as a deviation, the second one is when educational process fails to consider that a child's sexual development has stages.
The Law on education stipulates that upbringing of the under age is their parent's responsibility and the state has to render them all-out support. If we abide by this Law and follow its logic, neither state, nor municipal, nor departmental officials are allowed to tell parents what and in which amount their children should be taught. First of all, this relates to classes and courses that are not included in the State Standards of education and are "launched" on regional and local levels. This means that choosing curriculum and study books should be a priority of the local authorities, municipal government, or a principal rather than of the ministry. The idea that children have an absolute right to receive any unabridged information ran counter some provisions of the Law. That is why launching of sexual education programs should have had legal validation.
Organizational aspects of the educational program could be divided into personnel training and developing methodology.
The main focus of training was on the concept that the teacher who works with students is the key figure and the "communicator" of the idea of sexual education, the one who has special knowledge and methods. Experience and opinion polls among teenagers, however, proved it wrong. It is doubtful that a school teacher is capable of implementing the whole program and serving as a counselor throughout the course. It becomes evident that physicians or teachers regardless of their primary occupation and before they start working at school should acquire special knowledge base and gain some experience in teaching sexuality. It was noted that in some cases if the teacher who runs this course is accountable to the school authorities this plays a generally negative role. Thus, it was believed that it would be better if the class would be taught by experts from one of the local departments √ health, educational, or social one. However this leads to some legal predicaments as in the case with the survey conducted among teenagers by the research team of the psychiatry institute. This study was announced illegal.
The methodological aspects included considering various options for the program implementation √ weather it should be a school course, or a part of the curriculum, or an optional class, or a range of extra curriculum lectures and consultations with various specialists, or lectures and consultations on a chosen topic. The classes were supposed to be attended by both girls and boys with the aim to teach them how to discuss intimate themes. Some classes, for example personal hygiene, were supposed to be held in gender homogeneous groups. In addition to the official program some "covert programs" such as dancing parties and theatrical performances were also planned.
During the workshops various educational programs were analyzed and compared. It was stated that the overseas programs mainly have an applied nature and are focused on the medico-biological aspects of the problem. Their main objective is prevention of early beginning of sexual life, unwanted pregnancies and abortions, sexually transmitted diseases, whereas in terms of forming certain values these programs are somewhat limited since this function is performed by other establishments dealing with teenagers' socialization. Our native programs, on the contrary, are focused on moral and ethical aspects of gender relations, premarital and marital relations but little time is devoted to developing skills.
When the overseas and national approaches were combined the final goals of sexual education and preparation to married life were formulated. They are prevention and correction of at-risk sexual behavior, preparing the youth to be spouses and parents, strengthening sexual and reproductive health, protection of children and teenagers from possible sexual abuses.
The World Health Organization defines sexual health as "a complex of somatic, cognitive, emotional, and social health of a human existence". This definition was taken to formulate an idea that sexual education and preparation to married life are interdisciplinary activities entailing various fields of scientific and applied knowledge. This helped define the program requirements. They should include educational and values developing (i.e. personality oriented) aspects. At the same time the program should be of "preventing rather than of sexually stimulating nature and should be stressing norms and positive aspects of sexual life rather than referring to deviations in pursuit to intimidate students". What we saw was bureaucratization and mixing of incompatible notions. Experts argued that for sexual education to reach its goal it should be preventive, which was interpreted by opponents as "sexual stimulation" and even as "corruption of morals among the minors". The compromise seemed unattainable. Despite the huge bulk of work already done the project was closed. Still, its contribution to developing sexual culture and education in Russia can hardly be overestimated.

5. The state of affairs in 2002

The press service at the Ministry of Education claims that for the time being there are no plans to introduce any sexual education program. High school students will learn about relations between sexes at biology lessons and during new school class √ "Basics of Personal and Social Safety", during a 10-day course in the 10th and 11th grades. This course covers sexual education, use of contraceptives, and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. The class is conducted by a teacher and a psychologist.
The existing system of sexual education at school is introduced to teenagers when many of them already have their own sexual experience; when most young men and girls have already formed their views and perceptions. And their primary sources are obviously not their teachers. Such system can hardly achieve the formulated goals, since knowledge is presented with a considerable delay.
Experts realize that parents are unable to give their children sexual education due to low level of sexual culture and insufficient pedagogical experience. Though it is obvious that families and educational establishments should pool their efforts to help children acquire their gender roles, specific forms of such cooperation have never been discussed.
Today, the health problem among the Russian youth is viewed as a crucial one, since our country is suffering from an unprecedented for peace time demographic crisis. Unfortunately, the fact that the teen age is marked with increase in sexuality is being neglected. Among reports of the all-Russia forum "Health education, supporting health among children, teenagers, and the youth in Russia" there are no works covering sexual education.
Students in educational colleges have a special course and can use a textbook "Introduction to sexology". Universities and medical academies offer basic courses on sexology. By choosing sexology and sexual pathology as their major physicians can gain more profound knowledge of the matter.
Adults undoubtedly have a need to have their knowledge on sexuality systematized. This need is partially satisfied by printing media where gender and sex-related topics are covered. "Consultations" on sexological issues are performed by healers, extrasensory individuals, and fortune-tellers: "will help to return your husband", "will make him/her love you forever", "will put protection from adultery". Sexologists are traditionally addressed when sexual dysfunctions appear.
Study of at-risk groups with sexually transmitted diseases showed that participants have different level of knowledge on safe sex and that despite their knowledge they not always use it. Despite abundance of information on birth control methods, some married couples practice interruption of a sexual intercourse. Abortion level in Russia is still high. Prostitution is wide-spread. All this proves that systemized educational activities are as always essential.

6. Conclusion

If we view the system of sexual education as an institute of sexual socialization of a person, then we must admit that in Russia it is nonexistent. Institutional problems are partially caused by the fact that this form of educational activity brings about cultural changes and helps develop a free person more rapidly than other forms.