유럽의 '성교육' 지침 "피임에서 출산으로" Sex Education in Europe Turns to Urging More Births
유럽도 인구 노령화 심각
Students at a Copenhagen school during a discussion of sex led by a group seeking to raise
Denmark's birth rate. Credit Sofie Amalie Klougart for The New York Times
An Aging Population, Worldwide
The ratio of people over age 65 to those of prime working age
(20 to 64) is expected to increase throughout the world
in the next 40 years, according to projections by the United Nations.
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중·고등학교 시절 '성(性)교육'시간이라 하면 '안전한 성관계', '올바른 피임법'등을 위주로 배웠던 기억이 떠오른다. 유럽도 우리와 사정이 크게 다르지 않았다. 하지만 요즘 유럽에서는 '출산'을 목표로 하는 성교육으로 바뀌고 있는 추세다. 저출산 고령화에 접어든 유럽 국가들이 교육 커리큘럼까지 바꾸면서 '출산율 높이기'에 힘을 쏟는 모양새다. 덴마크가 대표적이다. 8일(현지시간) 뉴욕타임스(NYT) 보도에 따르면 덴마크의 학교 내 성교육을 전담하고 있는 비영리단체인 '성(性)과 사회(Sex and Society)'는 최근 커리큘럼을 변경했다. 원치 않는 임신을 피하는 방법을 위주로 가르쳤던 과거와 달리, 이제는 건강한 임신과 출산에 대한 교육에 집중하고 있다. '성과 사회' 대표인 마리아나 롬홀트는 "과거에 우리는 안전한 성 관계, 그리고 임신을 피하는 법만을 가르쳤다"며 "하지만 지금은 학생들이 어떻게 올바른 임신을 하고 출산할 수 있는지를 가르친다"고 말했다. 유럽 국가들이 성(性)교육 목표를 바꾼 이유는 바로 '저출산' 때문이다. 지난 2월 이탈리아 보건부 장관은 이탈리아를 '죽어가는 나라(dying country)'로 묘사했다. 아이 울음소리가 들리지 않는 국가는 죽어가는 것이나 마찬가지라는 표현이다. 독일 역시 가족 관련 보조금 명목으로 예산을 상당수 배정하고 있으나 효과가 미미하다는 지적이 나온다. 그리스 역시 정체된 출산율이 고민 꺼리다. 통계를 봐도 그렇다. 유엔 통계에 따르면 유럽의 경우 20~64세 노동 가능 인구 100명당 65세 이상 인구는 28명이다. 이는 세계 평균의 2배나 되는 수치다. 2100년까지 가면 65세 이상 인구는 현재의 2배로 증가할 예정이다. 즉 노동인구 100명당 65세 이상 노인 인구가 56명으로 늘어 젊은이들의 부담이 커진다는 뜻이다. 노동 인구 감소와 경제 활력 저하를 유발하는 저출산의 공포를 짐작케하는 대목이다. 실제로 유럽에선 기발한 임신 장려 정책이 속속 등장했다. NYT는 블라디미르 푸틴 러시아 대통령이 지난 2008년을 가족의 해로 선포했으며 푸틴을 지지하는 정당에서는 러시아 내에 있는 공원 벤치를 일자(一字)형이 아닌, 옆 사람과 밀착해서 앉을 수 있도록 굴곡진 모양으로 바꿔야 한다는 주장을 펼쳤다고 보도했다. 공원에서도 사랑을 속삭이라는 과도한(?) 배려로 보인다. 덴마크의 한 여행 기업은 "덴마크를 위해 사랑을 나눠라(Do it for Denmark!)"는 표어를 지난해 만들고 대대적인 캠페인을 벌이기도 했다. 여행사 광고에는 젊은 덴마크인들이 주말엔 파리에 있는 호텔에 묵으면서 사랑을 나누는 것이 출산율 높이기에 기여한다는 내용이 담겨 있다. 중앙일보 서유진 기자 suh.youjin@joongang.co.kr |
By DANNY HAKIM COPENHAGEN — Twenty-five Danish 13- and 14-year-olds gathered in a circle to talk about sex. This was going to be awkward. One student surveyed her red nails while a classmate checked his cellphone. When the discussion turned to masturbation, a girl pointed across the room toward a boy who was already chortling, and then she started to cover her own giggles by cupping a hand over her mouth. “It’s O.K. to laugh,” said the instructor, 29-year-old Andreas Beck Kronborg, who looked young enough to be an older brother. “We’re going to talk about stuff that’s embarrassing.” Recently, Sex and Society, a nonprofit group that provides much of Denmark’s sex education, adjusted its curriculum. The group no longer has a sole emphasis on how to prevent getting pregnant but now also talks about pregnancy in a more positive light. It is all part of a not-so-subtle push in Europe to encourage people to have more babies. Denmark, like a number of European countries, is growing increasingly anxious about low birthrates. Those concerns have only been intensified by the region’s financial and economic crisis, with high unemployment rates among the young viewed as discouraging potential parents. The Italian health minister described Italy as a “dying country” in February. Germany has spent heavily on family subsidies but has little to show for it. Greece’s depression has further stalled its birthrate. And in Denmark, the birthrate has been below the so-called replacement rate needed to keep a population from declining — just over two children per woman — since the early 1970s. “For many, many years, we only talked about safe sex, how to prevent getting pregnant,” said Marianne Lomholt, the national director of Sex and Society. “Suddenly we just thought, maybe we should actually also tell them about how to get pregnant.” The demographic shift is more pressing in Europe than almost any other major region, save Japan. There are an estimated 28 Europeans 65 or older for every 100 residents ages 20 to 64, almost twice the world average, according to the United Nations, and compared with 24.7 for the United States. By the end of the century, the United Nations expects the European figure to double. Such trends will transform societies, potentially reducing economic growth and increasing stress on public pension systems and requiring more elder care. Japan already faces existential questions in a country where adult diaper sales are beginning to eclipse those of baby diapers. But there is not a consensus about the impact of demographics. Some see a natural maturing of developed societies. Others see disaster ahead, because with fewer workers and more retirees, the active work force faces an increased burden to sustain social programs. Productivity gains over time, though, can make up for such population stresses. Declining birthrates can also lead to labor shortages, and Germany has faced a gap in skilled labor. But that is hardly an issue now for much of Europe, which is mired in high unemployment. Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story “The policy agenda is much more complicated than people often think,” said Hans Timmer, chief economist for Europe and Central Asia at the World Bank. “There is this opportunity for higher per capita income, even if overall income is not growing as fast as in other countries.” Recent efforts to increase birthrates around the world have been creative, if not necessarily effective. President Vladimir V. Putin declared 2008 the Year of the Family in Russia, and his political party employed touches like a curving park bench designed to get couples to slide closer together. There was a double-entendre-laden Mentos commercial in Singapore featuring a rapper urging residents to do their civic duty with lines like, “I’m a patriotic husband, you my patriotic wife. Lemme book into ya camp and manufacture a life.” In some countries, the issue can have a broad effect on policy debates. Zsolt Darvas, a senior fellow at Bruegel, a research organization based in Brussels, said the shrinking population issue had contributed to an aversion in Germany to public spending, particularly at a time of economic uncertainty. The link between the two topics has been made more than once by Jens Weidmann, president of Germany’s Bundesbank. “If you listen to the German argument — why Germany doesn’t want to have a larger budget deficit now to stimulate the economy — the argument they are always saying is that Germany has a very bad demographic outlook so they don’t want to burden future generations,” Mr. Darvas said. Anxiety in Danish society has spawned no shortage of creativity. One priest made headlines for his enthusiastic writings on sex and eroticism. An entrepreneur created a pro-procreation dating site. Spies, a Danish travel company, began a “Do It for Denmark!” promotional campaign last year aimed at increasing getaway bookings to European capitals. A racy commercial featured a young Danish couple going to a hotel in Paris to do their part to lift the nation’s birthrate. “Can sex save Denmark’s future?” the campaign asked, claiming that Danes had 46 percent more sex on holidays. “The reaction was very positive,” said Eva Lundgren, head of marketing at Spies, which is part of the Thomas Cook group. She added that the frequent Danish media coverage of the issue made it a natural topic to work with. “There has been for some years now some anxiousness about how we are going to support the growing elderly mass of people,” she said. Christine Antorini, the Danish education minister, said in a statement that the government was now seeking “a stronger focus on a broad and positive approach to health and sexuality, where sexual health covers both joys and risks associated with sexual behavior.” Perhaps all of the attention is starting to bear fruit. New statistics show about a thousand more births last year than the year before, the first increase in the Danish birthrate in four years. “I cannot say it is because of us,” Ms. Lomholt of Sex and Society said, laughing. “We have just started having a focus on it.” http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/09/business/international/sex-education-in-europe-turns-to-urging-more-births.html?_r=0 |
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