Where to Learn About Sex?

Children can learn sex at home, in school or in the street.

Photo from Ross Griff’s flickr 

The family is watching a movie one cozy night and a seemingly nice guy character, the one your son liked and looked up to, said the words “hand job”. Your son replicated the word ending it with a question mark, how will you respond? What will you say to your younger sister when she asked what “sex” is upon hearing it from you?

We can escape these questions of the young by lying and denying. But at some point, they’ll be old enough to know the terms and they’ll learn more about it somewhere. Will it be at home, school or in the streets?

It is a parent’s fear to expound the idea of sex to their child.  They see them as delicate beings and preaching them sexual profanity is a contamination to their mind. But they have organs that work, drive to copulate and minds to fill.

Talking about sex within the family is uncomfortable for the child and the parent. Certain parents aren’t confident to even say the vulgar words their children are sure to learn somewhere. If they won’t learn it inside the house, an option is to let the educators teach them.

Sex education at school goes beyond the act of reproducing but also covers sensitive issues like sexuality and sexual health. Classes are gender specific to focus on issues pertaining to their gender and to avoid embarrassment against the opposite sex.

Schools may offer two types of sex education classes. The Comprehensive Sexuality Education teaches broad range of issues including body image, masturbation and contraception. The other class, called the Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Program, will not bear students with pressing information but will assert the abstinence from all sexual behaviors.

The Comprehensive Sexuality Education may be in conflict with family and religious beliefs. Handing them the details may entice them but will emphasize on safe sex. While abstinence is a rigorous battle in today’s society, it is the safest way to avoid problems arising from premarital and unsafe sex.

If there’s no talk at home, and even in school, they’ll eventually get the information outside. It takes bold faith to entrust this lesson to the public.

Wherever you’re coming from, we agree that unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases can potentially ruin a person’s life.

Where do you think should children learn about sex?

Sources:
Why Sex Education Also Belongs in the Home; Advocates for Youth
Facts on American Teens’ Sources of Information About Sex; Guttmacher Institute
Sex education in schools pros and cons; YOUniversityTV
Sex Education in Schools; About.com

Pay the school + Pay the child

Educating a child is more expensive than once thought.

Photo from photoXpress

You pay the tuition, you pay his clothes, and you pay for his food. To get more benefit out of school, you should also pay your child for going to school.

Ambitious study of Harvard economist Roland Fryer Jr. paid $6.3 million to 18,000 students to testify his lead towards the education policy, classified as “one of the more rigorous studies ever”.

Students who are paid to merely attend school, like a day job, significantly fared better in their academics as measured by standardized tests. Money as an incentive is a pliable motivator. For these children, money is sweets, is games, is shoes, is cool stuff.

I’d want that. I wish I was also paid to go to school. If all parents did, all students will be rich! Of course it will make students work for it, especially those that are in their teenage years as money is independence. This may also mean training them for the harsh real world, that you hardly see “free work”, that work is done in exchange of money.

Medley of questions in my head challenged the results, even if I accepted the verity of the study. Couldn’t we see any other motivator other than money? If this was implemented, would they really like to learn, which is a never-dying process; or will they stop trying to learn when there’s no one paying them anymore? And are standardized tests the only measure of intelligence, forcing them to like science and math and disregarding arts or athletics?

Would you pay your child to go to school?

Source:
Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School?; Time

 

Judge Your Parents

Take note of their good sides, but take closer look on the bad sides.

Photo from Brian Turner’s flickr

When it’s our turn to be kids, we loved our parents so much. You show your dad that you can throw a baseball or show your mom the beautiful flower you just picked. You’re always by their side; you hug them and cry if you can’t see them.

Then, we enter the teenage years. We may despised because they’re intruding. They’d want to teach us life lessons but we wanted to live our own life differently and not be told what to do.

They say we’ll go back to loving them more once we grew out of the teenage years. When we started having our own families, they say we’ll be exactly like our parents. I hope not.

Criticize your parents. Don’t hate them so much that you don’t recognize their good side; and don’t love them too much that you don’t recognize their bad side. Try not to repeat the mistakes and the displeasing side of your parents.

They gave birth to you and that commands respect; but they don’t always do the right thing. Not because they’re your parents you just accept all they say and do as if they created everything right. I’m not denouncing the roles of parents, but I’ve seen parents who will assert that they’re always right in their families.

Parents can say and do right or wrong. You don’t have to brag it to them, love and respect, and just filter what’s coming in to you.

Pitiful Names

Why would a parent name their child Placenta?

Person’s Label. Photo from bluemarquee.com

Certain parents are adept in naming their child. Select names just stand out, like Justin of course. Every time I introduce myself, it’s always a relief to other people because my name is easy to remember and I’ve got the famous Justin Bieber to be associated. Michael, Susan, Holly, James – they are all common and simple too. These names not only are clear, but according to Laram and company’s study, the “easy-to-pronounce names are evaluated more positively”.

Naturally positive occurring names have many implications. For one, people with simple names will have finer life opportunities. They’ll be evaluated more positively at work and first impressions towards them will be better than people with names like Suozzi.

You may think that simple names are too generic, where’s the uniqueness and fun in naming a child? I know some names that are simple yet unusual, like Caspar and Ivo. Caution though, having a too strange could hurt the owner of the name because it’s odd for the society. We are followers of society, which parents should have accepted already.

When I hear names like Placenta or Gaye Males, I pity the name but not the child. It’s not the choice of the child, but he or she will be affected by their labels. There are many labels that society imposed on the child right before they are born. Race is a label, and being White or Hispanic has an indelible impact on the life of the person. However, name is a label parents can control. I think parents should take more time in deciding what name they would bestow.

What name would you give or have given to your child?

More Moments for you:
Strange Parenting Practices
Comment on Same-Sex Schools Study
What if.. Nationality is a Choice

Source:
The name-pronunciation effect: Why people like Mr. Smith more than Mr. Colquhoun; Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

 

Siblings Fight

My brother grabbed a pencil and stabbed it on my left palm.

Siblings Fight. Photo from freeprintablebehaviorcharts.com

Parents will try to hinder their kids from killing each other, but it will happen. The clash is because children are selfish, and sometimes their desires are conflict with the other. When they grow up, they will still fight, and now because they have this thing called “pride” and “principle” that they strive to abide by.

Fighting is not something they learned. I don’t think that TV or games made them violent, but instinct dictates them to fray. But that is not to say that we let them be. We still try to tone our children and make them be a mannerly person.

I like to fight with my brother, and I welcome other siblings to fight too because when they reconciled, they will be closer to each other. On a separate occasion, I sprayed antiseptic alcohol to my brother’s eyes. He’s still in 20/20 vision now; I’m not really a douche but I’m sure there’s an ample reason behind my fury then. I can’t remember it, maybe curiosity? I wonder what it does on a person’s eyes.. ohh that!

I have a sister too, and we fight like Zeus and Hades. She loves to grow her nails just so she can scratch the tendons beneath my skin. My strongest weapon is I’ll call her fat, fat! fat! fat! I miss those good times; and see, later on in life you’ll just laugh about it and you love each other more. I thank those times that it happened.

What is the fiercest fight you’ve had with your sibling/s?

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Comment for Same-Sex Schools Study