sex education in schools national curriculum

ever since i was little, i was seriously physicallyabused because my mannerisms and way of talking was not like the other boys. i was not supposedto be myself. i needed to act like somebody else. i always believed that. since i was three, i knew i was gay.

sex education in schools national curriculum, in japan, there's a saying "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down." i was that nail stickingout... and i got bullied really badly. someone would kick me or hit me, just to get a goodlaugh out of it. many times since i was young, i wanted to kill myself.

in japan, lgbt students who try to reportcases of bullying to their teachers are often faced with a refusal to engage because theteachers either don't understand sexual orientation or gender identity or they see it as a tabootopic that they don't want to take up. other other studentsare told that the way that they should solve the problem is to conform. they were toldthat their desire to be an openly gay or openly transgender student at the school was a selfish desire and was ruining the harmony of the school for everyone else. even the nationalbullying prevention policy promotes school harmony and social conformity instead of discussingthe particular vulnerabilities of any group of students. the attacks only got worse after i came out.

getting my homework that i needed to turn in to the teacher scribbled on, stolen or thrown into the trash. not only the students but some of the teachers also openly showed hostility towards gays. when i told my teacher that i was bullied,the teacher told me that "you deal with it among yourselves". they behaved as if it didn'tconcern them or it wasn't important. one out of three teachers still believes thathomosexuality is a mental illness or "don't really know if it is." such basic things arestill not common knowledge. so the first step is to increase the level of knowledge andchange the mindset and the next is dealing with it in the classroom. it's important tocreate a system where teachers are receiving training. in the elementary schools, lgbt issues weren'tdiscussed or in the curriculum. but i heard

but i heard many instances where classrooms used lgbt issues in the classroom as something bad or something tomake fun of. for a child, a teacher is someone you seeevery day. for that teacher to make negative remarks about something that could pertainto you understandably adversely affects their self-esteem. for transgender students, the situation canbe even worse. in order to attend school according to the gender they identify with, schoolsoften require them to obtain a diagnosis of a mental disorder. without this, they areforced to wear uniforms they don't identify with. they are denied access to bathroomsand they are slotted into gender -segregated

school activities. a normal kid is able to wake up in the morningand look forward to school. me, i didnt want to go to school. for me, i was happy when school ended. this year japan's national bullying preventionact is up for review. this is a crucial opportunity for the government to address some of theweaknesses in the policy. most specifically, they should name categories of students whoare vulnerable to bullying, including lgbt students. the japanese government has an opportunity to signal that harmony in schools should beachieved by including everyone and making everyone feel safe.