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

Chinese is the New World’s Language

Now could be a good time to learn Chinese in preparation for the on-going shift of the world’s language.

Photo from Philip Jägenstedt’s flickr

The ability to speak, read and understand English is vital to communicate to a diversified range of people. It is the language of the world’s scientific academe and political reference. It is even predicted during the 19^th century that English will be the world’s language.

But English is declining. Chinese is rising. And the world’s tongue is adjusting.

Chinese is now the most widely spoken language in the world. This is mainly due to the multitude of Chinese population. In China alone, there are more than 1.3 billion Chinese and those who are scattered around the world speak their own language as well.

In the business world, Chinese is sitting comfortably along English as the most useful language. Transacting business matters using a common language is essential for rapport building but also for the “speed and effectiveness of your negotiations”, says Leigh Hafrey, a senior lecturer in communications and ethics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management.

The Chinese people better use their voice because it takes years to fully master the language. Learners should find the best memorization technique that works since Zhongwen Da Cidian (Great Dictionary of the Chinese Language) lists 50,000 Chinese characters, whereas English only has 26 alphabets. Being a tonal language, different tones of the same word have different meanings. And there are variations in form of dialects – Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, Min, and more.  Each has internal diversity.

Despite the barrier of difficulty, westerners demand to learn it. Michael Roemer, an attorney who lives in California, brought his family to live in China. His purpose was to teach his two children the Chinese language because according to his own words, “speaking Mandarin is important”.

While Europe and USA remain the key players in the world’s economy, they recognize the gaining power of Asia, especially of the Chinese economy. Companies worldwide manufacture in China. The Chinese people are the biggest consumers of goods. Learning the world’s newest language would maintain the west’s competitiveness.

Language is power. Those who don’t speak it will be secluded. But China seemed to pass on this opportunity. It showed no interest to influence the world to make their language native. China casted English classes throughout the colossal country so the population could speak English when they hosted the 2008 Olympics.

Even without the slightest of effort from China, Chinese is still emerging. Right now, 9% of the population spoke English at birth. By 2050, it’ll be down to 5%. This gives room of expansion for the next major language.

Are you ready to learn the Chinese language?

Sources:
English in Decline as a First Language, Study Says; National Geographic
Mandarin Chinese Most Useful Business Language After English; Bloomberg
Can Chinese Replace English as the Global Language?; Chilli breeze
Chinese learn English for Olympics; Chine Daily
Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard; pinyin.info

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

 

Digital Education

Can digital education replace the traditional campus?

Photo from photoXpress

Have you received a call, email or seen an ad of a school promoting their online programs? About four universities reached me and informed me about their MBA program that fits my schedule. Education has now boarded on the web.

Let’s say, you can get free courses in Harvard; which you could (Harvard Open Courses) but what about the traditional campus studentship? Is it okay for these professors to record one lecture and just play it to students? You may say that it’s good because now they can focus more on research.  However, the internet is a lonely place.

I earned my undergraduate degree on campus. Benefits of college on campus are social and academic. Digital education took away the social part, where students don’t get the pressure of the presence of co-students. In campus, they get face-to-face experiences with people and situations that are relevant in life after school, isn’t it?

Online college saves time and can coalesce with your present life. Work in the morning, class before sleep. You can save money too. Apart from the fraction of tuition fee, all you need is an internet connection. No gas nor commute allowance. No canteen food. No need for looking good means less gel expenses for guys and makeup budget for girls.

Are your pro-digital or pro-campus?

Why They Teach You Math

Other than having answers in our homeworks and exams, here are the practical uses of math.

Photo from funeducationalapps.com

General Math

Where else do you use math? It’s obvious, isn’t it? In MONEY. I remember as a student, I used math to know when my savings will amount to a Billabong board short by keeping part of my allowance. Math is just used in receiving money, and paying with money. It makes your investment be in the proper ground and helps you buy the right insurance. And it feels good to see numbers are added ardently in your bank every salary day.

Math guides shoppers by knowing the costs of different products and getting the best deal. Some people also estimate the cost of all items they have in their tray when shopping. Math makes sense when there’s SALE, even though regardless of the discount, anything on sale is a hot signal.

There is also mathematics in cooking. Try preparing a single plate of salad and put two cups of Caesar dressing. Perhaps you’ll complain that the dressing is too much. The amount of your ingredients must depend on each other – that’s is ratio and proportion.

Lastly, counting is math. Whether you count the days leading to your vacation or counting sheep to sleep, math is used my friend.

Algebra

Arnold caught 16 flies in a week. Every week he plans to increase his flies by 5. How many flies will he have in one month? When these kinds of dilemmas happened to you in real life, you’d be thankful that you have learned Algebra. Other than that, you use this when you became an Engineer, Scientist, Economist, Accountant, Mathematician, or Math Tutor.

Statistics

Are you probable to win the lotto? Possibly, you have a 1 in 175 Million chance of winning – and that’s the concept of probability. You also use probability to know which side you are more likely to win in a bet. Is it probable that you’ll remember and use probability equations in those circumstances? Not really though. But taking a guess in multiple choice exam is an application of statistics. You just gave yourself a 25% chance of getting the correct answer, whether you know it or not. Statistics will then be your life if you are a Researcher, National Statistics Office employee, Businessman, Economist, Mathematician, or Math Tutor.

Geometry

It’s a fortunate event that you’ve studied geometry so that you know more varying shapes, other than box, circle and heart.

Geometry teaches you some properties of space. Like example, if my ice cream cone would fit inside my wallet is taken care of this branch of mathematics. Other than the absurd idea of why would you do that, it should have been taken care of common sense.

Geometry also takes credit on measurements. For instance, you can apply the pythagorean theorem to know the shortest way to go to one place. Even angles are given too much focus on this area; so bowling is applied geometry (again, knowingly or unknowingly!).

Geometry is for Architects, Carpenters, Designers, Mathematicians, and Math Tutors.

Trigonometry

Ah, the study of triangles. The only way I could think that this area of math could have helped you is if you are a Trigonometry Professor, Mathematician, or Math Tutor.

Calculus

Any branch of science where solution is achieved through complex mathematical operations is where calculus is used, apart from Mathematician and Math Tutor.

More than all of that, it is the logical thinking we have acquired from studying math.

Where else did you use math?

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