I was flipping through a coffee table book about the sketches of
Leonardo da Vinci with my brother earlier today. In it were many
sketches by this Renaissance man, from portraits to plants to
anatomy to weapons. But on the cover was his infamous sketch "The
Proportions of the Human Figure" and....
"Eee... why got private part one!"
But whilst I retained his interest, I sought to show him as much
of this man's ideas as possible. And so he flipped through the
book, looking through the portrait sketches...
"Whoa, very lifelike leh..."
... and the anatomy...
"is he a doctor?"
"No. He just knows a lot and likes to draw about them."
... until we got to the anatomy of our nether regions.
"Here is the testes, this is the bladder, this is the vas
deferens, the kidneys, and see how the sperm from the testes are
linked to the bladder which comes out of the penis. And this is a
fetus in the womb, this is a calf in the placenta. This is a sketch
of people having sex."
"Ee, I never learn that in school one."
"Don't say 'ee'; it's natural. Something you should
embrace."
"I know."
... then we got to the plants.
"Hey, look at these lily, you see those oval thingys? They are
calles stamen; they pollinate other flowers."
"Yeah, this one is the stigma, and below it is the ovary and
when pollen from the stamen goes onto the stigma it fertilizes the
ovary and the ovary develops into a fruit and the ovules inside the
ovary become seeds."
So now I finally realize that I have a Primary 5 brother who
knows how flowers have sex but knows not what his balls are called.
It's all wrong.
"Whoa, how do you know all this?"
"They taught us in science."
"But don't you think it should be the other way round? To first
learn how humans reproduce before we learn how plants
reproduce?"
"Ya lor, I think we should learn how humans reproduce, then
plants, then water."
"Water?"
"How water changes state."
Your thoughts? I personally think sex education can be in
primary school science (or is it already?). After all, most of us
spend a lot more time thinking about human sex than the intimate
intricacies of how a flower develops into a fruit. While human
reproduction is far more complicated, I think an outline will help
us understand and appreciate ourselves (and our parents!) better,
as well as make sex less of a taboo, mythical (for youths) and
awkward (for parents) topic.
Yes, sexual education is taught in primary school. However, it
is done by external vendors who come in to the schools.
