(submitted by gekkogecko)

Reuters to
My Yahoo!

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's eastern financial hub of
Shanghai is adding a dash of romance to the school
curriculum to teach children about real love, as
opposed to the Internet chatroom variety.

"Stories and poems on love written by well-known
authors, Chinese and foreign, ancient and
contemporary, have been added to middle school
textbooks in a special unit titled 'Love is like a
song', an unprecedented endeavor," Xinhua news agency
said on Wednesday.

The literature includes work by Russian poet Pushkin,
excerpts from Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" and
Chinese love classics written by ancient and
contemporary writers.

"With the development of information technology and
the media industry, people in China, including
students, are exposed to news and information on love
at an unprecedented rate," Xinhua said, without
mentioning Internet pornography.

"In Chinese society, however, love, both spiritual and
physical, remains a traditional taboo and a topic
seldom touched on in the Chinese curriculum, though it
is a factor widely believed to divert students'
attention from study."

The agency quoted Professor Fan Shougang, editor of
the new textbook from the Shanghai Education
Publishing House, as saying he hoped the new studies
would help guide students through puberty smoothly.

Xinhua said trial courses had been held for
15-year-olds at schools across Shanghai.

"Although tutoring proceeded smoothly, the class fell
into a long silence when it was asked to comment on
'puberty love' and 'whether Internet love is real',"
said Gao.

"Teaching the new unit is quite a challenge for me
owing to the difficulty of getting to the point."

The new course had proved a challenge for some parents
too, Xinhua said.

"Supporters thanked editors for delivering messages
that they wanted to but are too embarrassed to send.
Opponents worried the sensitive content might lead
their kids to fall in love too early."

Xinhua said last month China is working with its top
two search engines to crack down on Internet
pornography by restricting the use of keywords.

China began its crackdown on porn sites in mid-July
and closed 700 Web sites in the first 10 days of the
campaign.

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