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SEXUAL EDUCATION

 

O Spolni vzgoji [On Sexual Education] (1956) was one of the first Yugoslavian manuals for parents that comprehensively addressed sexuality. Like many other manuals of that time, it was based on the values of free love, equality and humanity, and strove for responsible parenthood. Its author, a consultant to educational institutions, Helena Puhar, complemented it in 1961 with a manual for children, entitled Matjaž in Alenka: Otroci sprašujejo starše o življenju in o ljubezni. [Matjaž and Alenka: Children Ask Their Parents about Life and Love].

In the 1960s, sexual education was introduced to schools. In the upper grades of elementary school, it was taught within the subject Health Promotion and Education by health workers.  Besides the biological aspects of sexuality and contraceptive methods, this subject also dealt with interpersonal relationships and responsible and safe sex. Although sexual education triggered embarrassment and laughter, it was of utmost importance for the post-war generations because it was at school that women born after the Second World War received most information, while their mothers, born before the war, almost had no knowledge about sexuality and reproduction.

Today, young people access information on the Internet, among peers and in partner relationships, but also at school. Although they are fairly satisfied with sexual education within formal education, they miss lessons on love, partner relations, intimacy, sensuality, pleasure, sexual identity, sexual orientation, sexualisation, sexual violence and sexual consent. These topics have been limited since 1985, when sexuality education was transferred to biology classes. Nonetheless, Slovenia boasts one of the lowest shares of teenage pregnancies in the world. This is the merit of the remnants of the socialist system of family planning, in particular free contraception and easily accessible reliable information for girls and their mothers.

Endeavours to introduce a more comprehensive sexual education to educational institutions are important as it cannot be replaced by the abundance of unverified online information that can be accessed even by preschool children. The Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe (2010) recommend the introduction of age-appropriate sexual education as early as in kindergartens. Also, the comprehensive approach is of key importance for young people. It brings them the message that they have the right to feel pleasure and at the same time to feel safe in sexuality, and teaches them to recognise abuse: the unacceptable violation of the boundaries of what is permissible, and trampling on the dignity of others.

Tea Hvala

Vida Tomšič, the Secretary of the Federal People’s Assembly of the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia and the president of the Antifascist Front of Women of Yugoslavia, 1948, Association for Culture and Art CRVENA, AFŽ archive Sarajevo.
Jakica Accetto, Naslovnica učbenika Helene Puhar “O spolni vzgoji” [The Front Page of the Textbook ”On Sexual Education” by Helena Puhar], 1956, archive of the Kranj City Library.
Drawing: Vesna Bukovec, 2024. Text: Fierce Project Group, 2024.

SOURCES:

  • Alenka Švab, Tina Kogovšek in Roman Kuhar, »Characteristics of First Sexual Intercourse among Secondary School Students in Slovenia,« Teorija in praksa: revija za družbena vprašanja [Theory and Practice: journal for social sciences questions] 58, No. 3 (2021): 827–839.
  • Ana Kralj, Tanja Rener, Vesna Leskošek [et al.], Abortion and Reproductive Rights in Slovenia: A Case of Resistance (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2024).
  • Christine Winkelmann (ed.), Standards for Sexuality Education in Europe (Köln: Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung, 2010), 34–35.
  • Maja Vehar, Spolna vzgoja v Sloveniji od spremembe družbenopolitičnega sistema po drugi svetovni vojni do konca 60. let. [Sexual Education in Slovenia from the Change of Social-Political System after the Second World War until the end of 1960] Doctoral Dissertation (Ljubljana: Faculty of Arts, 2021). 
  • Vida Tomšič, Ženska, delo, družina, družba. [Woman, Work, Family, Society] (Ljubljana: The Komunist Journal, 1978), 395. 

 

RECOMMENDED SOURCES FOR CHILDREN (AND THEIR PARENTS) AND ADOLESCENTS:

CONTENTS FOR CHILDREN:

  • Katharina von der Gathen, Tell Me: What Children Really Want to Know about Bodies, Sex, and Emotions (Wellington: Gecko Press, 2019). The manual is appropriate for children above the age of 8.
  • Tea Hvala, Urška Jež, Gabrijela Simetinger, Sara Šabec, Aleš Zobec: Učna ura #VsakDan8Marec: Kviz o spolnosti [A lesson #8MarchEveryDay: Sexuality Quiz] (Ljubljana: Mesto žensk, The City of Women, 2022): https://mestozensk.org/sl/nase-dejavnosti/izobrazevanje/vsakdan8marec. The quiz is appropriate for children above the age of 12. 

CONTENTS FOR ADOLESCENTS:

  • Oddaja Slovar spolne vzgoje na RTV Slovenija [The Glossary of Sexual Education, a TV Show on RTV Slovenia]: https://365.rtvslo.si/oddaja/slovar-spolne-vzgoje/173251409.
  • Projekt Prvič na RTV Slovenija [For the First Time project on RTV Slovenia]: https://365.rtvslo.si/oddaja/prvic/173251753 (shows, articles, podcasts).
  • Projekt Pravila dejtanja o prepoznavanju različnih oblik nasilja v odnosih [The Dating Rules project on the identification of different forms of violence in relationships] (DrogArt Association): https://www.praviladejtanja.si/.
  • A Manual by Irena Duša Draž and Izar Lunaček, Seksikon [Sexicon] (Ljubljana, Mladinska knjiga Publishing House, 2008).
  • A comic book by Liv Strömquist, Fruit of Knowledge (London: Virago Press, 2018).  
  • Desa Muck, Blazno resno o seksu [Deadly Serious about Sex] (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1998).