Let's talk about sex, baby

The last time Shanghaiist was in the Bund Sightseeting Tunnel -- way back in 2002 -- we didn't get a chance to peruse the Sex Culture and Education Exhibition that is currently housed there. Needless to say, had we known about it at the time, we would have checked it out ... and probably gone back a couple of more times, just to really absord all of the sexually explicit content information.

Originally, Shanghai Datong High School planned to be the first Shanghai high school to partner with the exhibition by bringing its students on a field trip of sorts, for the purpose of sex education. Now that teachers from Datong High have gotten a good, long look at the material, they have backed out of the agreement, saying that kids just aren't ready for that kind of imagery yet.

Shanghai Daily has this to say:

Chinese youngsters are among the oldest recipients of sex education in the world despite the fact that they are one of the most sexually active groups. Vivid and reliable sex education approaches are especially commendable against the backdrop of a rising teenage abortion rate and the swift spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Rising teenage abortion? Swift spread of STDs? Eesh. It sounds to Shanghaiist like these teachers are just too conservative to deliver a healthy, upfront education to their students, which is only doing them a disservice. If they can't stomach the Sex Culture and Education Exhibition, allow us to offer a few alternatives:

• Talk to the fellas slangin' DVDs at Xiangyang. They often sell educational "sex DVDs" of the highest quality (or so we've heard).
• Take the students to Windows Too between 1:00am and 4:00am to scare the sex out of 'em with the drunken debauchery they witness.
• Head over to Maoming Lu and have them chat up one of the "ladies of the night" prowling the vicinity. I am sure they have invaluable knowledge to pass on.

There are many other viable ways to receive a healthy sex education, and we would continue to list them if we had the time, but there is this foreign film we bought from a guy at Xiangyang that we're just dying to watch. Also, we might hit up that sightseeing tunnel tomorrow -- after all, you can never be too educated.

Photo from flickr.