But no, this day chose to be different. S/He blurts s/he is disgusted by the way the Education Department makes a lot of fuss about sex education. I braced myself. I know where s/he stands in this given her/his straight Roman Catholic background and his/her deeply-rooted belief in marriage and things related to it.
“Well, they should.”
Shit, wrong answer. Instead of ending the conversation I got the biggest look of surprise from her/him. You’re one stupid girl, Rej, how could you forget s/he asked you not too long ago about your family devotion. What?? Don’t the 3-pierced left ear and my lack of holy figure in the desk give away my distaste for any form of organized religion? I thought you were into typecasting?
“Well, isn’t sex education the role of the parents in the first place?”
HUWAATT??? I should sue my parents. Apparently they shortchanged me, neglecting their primary duty to educate me on sex. No, they didn’t give me no sex education at all. I got all my sex education from 90’s rock and roll, MTV and DH Lawrence.
Oh wait. Not DH Lawrence. My mother’s Mills and Boons.
No, not from mom nor dad but also from the transverse section of a gumamela, nicely drawn by a scrawny grade four overworked Ms. Tapia (only that she is married), showing how the male and female parts tango to make a lovely nice fruit. (Yes, it always has to be gumamela. Although it doesn’t bear fruit this flower is the nicest one to dissect.)
Oh God…one argument coming. Zoology 102, where are you when I needed you?
“Well, I’d like to believe that sex education has been integrated in the curriculum for as long as I remember. I was taught sex education in grade four, or at least that’s how I thought it was. I mean, I learned about the women's menstrual cycle and all in grade five. Isn’t that sex education?”
SHIT. Wrong answer again. Now it’s not the surprise look anymore. It’s the surprise look plus bigger, bulging eyes. Jesus H. Christ, what have I gotten myself into?
“But don’t you think these people won’t go into teaching them the eroticisms of sex, the pleasure, the psychology and all things related to it? Remember, these kids know nothing about eroticism at that age. It comes much later.”
“I think it is better to teach the elementary children how our reproductive organs work rather than lying to them, calling these things birds and the bees.”
“Well, if it's proper naming that you mean then it's okay if these teachers use 'vagina' and 'penis' but teaching them sex education. I mean, the proper function of the reproductive parts and the anatomy and all those things. These are things reserve to a much older audience.”
Lest you forget, Sir/Madam, I’ve had 3 years in UPManila studying Biology and I graduated with a degree in Psychology from UP Visayas. I also happened to be part of the Region VI team who gathered the date for the Young Adults Fertility and Sexuality III (YAFS II) Study of the UP Population Institute and I also took part in the Community-Based Study on Unwanted Pregnancies all over Region VI, and some parts of Region VII, also by the UP Pop I and the Alan Guttmacher Institute. I was on the road for 5 fucking weeks talking, asking women how they ended up with 8 kids and if they are getting enough sex for one whole year. I rode the habal-habal that snaked through the edge of the cliff, climbed mountains, walked narrow trails under torrential rains to get to these communities so I could bombard these women questions a 40-paged sex and abortion questionnaire could muster. My only limitation is that I am not a demographer and I cannot really talk about population using an expert’s opinion or the jargons that would convince you on my credibility but I’d also like you to know that am working my way to a masters in urban planning to which population/demography is an indispensable component.
So, do I deserve the right to an opinion then?
“They should just define sex education. The best way to make people understand their intentions is to explain it to them.”
“No, don’t you see? Didn’t it ever occur to you that they will begin teaching these children things they are too young to know? That is precisely why the Catholic Church rallies against it because parents should be given a choice. Sex education is not the answer to growing population.”
Oh wait. Was I misinformed? Was that the main reason why sex education is being taught in schools – to curb the population growth? That is rather ambitious.
“My stand is still, that DepEd should explain—define—what they mean by sex education. Show us the module or whatever, because to me, sex education can mean teaching children how pregnancy takes place. The modules should of course be appropriate to the children’s age.”
“But don’t you think by just teaching them how these things take place you strike their little bulbs of curiosity and they won’t go around experimenting it themselves?”
I wanted to ask back: “Would you?” but that would be too disrespectful of me. This rather radical opinion is already a big sign of disrespect.
OH…THE PORNOGRAPHY THEORY. Give the kids pornography and they will become immoral teens, ending up as pervert adults… …Which the demented policy makers used to counter the RH bill: the more condoms the more the people would want to have sex. Seriously, when I got a dayjob I couldn't even find time to have sex.
Well, based on experience, I do like sex but dislike the pregnancy part. And because I am a WELL-INFORMED BITCH I know my rights, I have my choices, and therefore I never acted on mere curiosity. It was always curiosity with at least 5 books in reference. Don’t you think it will still be the same – parents teaching their children about sex? If parents taught their kids about sex, won’t the kids also go out experimenting on sex and getting pregnant? What difference does the “instructor” make?
“You know what they should ban? MEDIA. You know this telenovela KATORSE? It was about a 14 year-old poor lass who was gotten pregnant by a son of an haciendero and this whole damn show go about glorifying the fact that these things happen. And you know my impression of it? Well isn’t that a lucky thing, getting pregnant at 14. She actually ended up having the best life. Don’t you think these are the things the church should be rallying about? Get these kinds of show off air! It’s reaching far more 14 year-olds and causing their little curiosity bulbs to light up more than you could imagine.”
“Well, of course the church can’t because the media moguls have so much money to fight for their right to air these shows.”
Egg-sack-lee.
And then the discussion went on to women in poverty having too many kids and doing nothing about it.
I’m close to strangling this person. Really.
“It’s the lack of choice.”
“And by choice, you mean?”
“Do you know that majority of those who want their fetuses aborted are married women? And do you know that majority of those who want to have only one child are women in poverty?”
“Then why do they keep on getting pregnant?”JESUS, PLEASE GRANT ME THE PATIENCE TO OVERCOME THIS MORONIC INTERROGATION MOMENT OF MY LIFE BECAUSE, CHRIST, IF I PRAYED FOR STRENGTH I MIGHT END UP IN JAIL.
“Choice. They didn’t have any better choice. No opportunity to work. Haven’t been given opportunity to have good education. Maybe forced to sex by their alcoholic husbands? Don’t have access to good reproductive health. Don’t have money to pay a gynecologist or obstetrician. No choice to abort the fetus. That is what I mean by choices.”
“But still, sex education to elementary and pre-school children is not the answer to the growing population.”
“Of course.”
“They said it will just be tested on certain pilot high schools. But why turn it into a law already when the results aren’t yet in?” “I’d still go for proper and adequate information dissemination. I think that’s the best way to end this squabble.”
“But they should not. They don’t give the parents any choice.”
I rest my case.
----
TO BE BETTER INFORMED about women's rights and choices please read on the magna carta OF women here.
Ira corrected me: It is magna carta OF women not FOR women.
good change in preposition, even for preposition idiots like me.
postcripts:
discussing over a really bad spaghetti bolognese in pizza hut -- swear don't eat this -- Ira said that Sex Ed is actually short for Sexuality Education which includes far more extensive topics than just matters on copulation, or to put it simply, FUCKING, that what these myopic moralists think. Self-awareness is one of the basic things in sexuality education.
And these matters should be taught by objective thinkers and educators who have the capacity to teach, not by some church-going, straight-catholic teacher who haven't even had a single orgasm in her life.
HUWAATT??? I should sue my parents. Apparently they shortchanged me, neglecting their primary duty to educate me on sex. No, they didn’t give me no sex education at all. I got all my sex education from 90’s rock and roll, MTV and DH Lawrence.
Oh wait. Not DH Lawrence. My mother’s Mills and Boons.
No, not from mom nor dad but also from the transverse section of a gumamela, nicely drawn by a scrawny grade four overworked Ms. Tapia (only that she is married), showing how the male and female parts tango to make a lovely nice fruit. (Yes, it always has to be gumamela. Although it doesn’t bear fruit this flower is the nicest one to dissect.)
Oh God…one argument coming. Zoology 102, where are you when I needed you?
“Well, I’d like to believe that sex education has been integrated in the curriculum for as long as I remember. I was taught sex education in grade four, or at least that’s how I thought it was. I mean, I learned about the women's menstrual cycle and all in grade five. Isn’t that sex education?”
SHIT. Wrong answer again. Now it’s not the surprise look anymore. It’s the surprise look plus bigger, bulging eyes. Jesus H. Christ, what have I gotten myself into?
“But don’t you think these people won’t go into teaching them the eroticisms of sex, the pleasure, the psychology and all things related to it? Remember, these kids know nothing about eroticism at that age. It comes much later.”
“I think it is better to teach the elementary children how our reproductive organs work rather than lying to them, calling these things birds and the bees.”
“Well, if it's proper naming that you mean then it's okay if these teachers use 'vagina' and 'penis' but teaching them sex education. I mean, the proper function of the reproductive parts and the anatomy and all those things. These are things reserve to a much older audience.”
Lest you forget, Sir/Madam, I’ve had 3 years in UPManila studying Biology and I graduated with a degree in Psychology from UP Visayas. I also happened to be part of the Region VI team who gathered the date for the Young Adults Fertility and Sexuality III (YAFS II) Study of the UP Population Institute and I also took part in the Community-Based Study on Unwanted Pregnancies all over Region VI, and some parts of Region VII, also by the UP Pop I and the Alan Guttmacher Institute. I was on the road for 5 fucking weeks talking, asking women how they ended up with 8 kids and if they are getting enough sex for one whole year. I rode the habal-habal that snaked through the edge of the cliff, climbed mountains, walked narrow trails under torrential rains to get to these communities so I could bombard these women questions a 40-paged sex and abortion questionnaire could muster. My only limitation is that I am not a demographer and I cannot really talk about population using an expert’s opinion or the jargons that would convince you on my credibility but I’d also like you to know that am working my way to a masters in urban planning to which population/demography is an indispensable component.
So, do I deserve the right to an opinion then?
“They should just define sex education. The best way to make people understand their intentions is to explain it to them.”
“No, don’t you see? Didn’t it ever occur to you that they will begin teaching these children things they are too young to know? That is precisely why the Catholic Church rallies against it because parents should be given a choice. Sex education is not the answer to growing population.”
Oh wait. Was I misinformed? Was that the main reason why sex education is being taught in schools – to curb the population growth? That is rather ambitious.
“My stand is still, that DepEd should explain—define—what they mean by sex education. Show us the module or whatever, because to me, sex education can mean teaching children how pregnancy takes place. The modules should of course be appropriate to the children’s age.”
“But don’t you think by just teaching them how these things take place you strike their little bulbs of curiosity and they won’t go around experimenting it themselves?”
I wanted to ask back: “Would you?” but that would be too disrespectful of me. This rather radical opinion is already a big sign of disrespect.
OH…THE PORNOGRAPHY THEORY. Give the kids pornography and they will become immoral teens, ending up as pervert adults… …Which the demented policy makers used to counter the RH bill: the more condoms the more the people would want to have sex. Seriously, when I got a dayjob I couldn't even find time to have sex.
Well, based on experience, I do like sex but dislike the pregnancy part. And because I am a WELL-INFORMED BITCH I know my rights, I have my choices, and therefore I never acted on mere curiosity. It was always curiosity with at least 5 books in reference. Don’t you think it will still be the same – parents teaching their children about sex? If parents taught their kids about sex, won’t the kids also go out experimenting on sex and getting pregnant? What difference does the “instructor” make?
“You know what they should ban? MEDIA. You know this telenovela KATORSE? It was about a 14 year-old poor lass who was gotten pregnant by a son of an haciendero and this whole damn show go about glorifying the fact that these things happen. And you know my impression of it? Well isn’t that a lucky thing, getting pregnant at 14. She actually ended up having the best life. Don’t you think these are the things the church should be rallying about? Get these kinds of show off air! It’s reaching far more 14 year-olds and causing their little curiosity bulbs to light up more than you could imagine.”
“Well, of course the church can’t because the media moguls have so much money to fight for their right to air these shows.”
Egg-sack-lee.
And then the discussion went on to women in poverty having too many kids and doing nothing about it.
I’m close to strangling this person. Really.
“It’s the lack of choice.”
“And by choice, you mean?”
“Do you know that majority of those who want their fetuses aborted are married women? And do you know that majority of those who want to have only one child are women in poverty?”
“Then why do they keep on getting pregnant?”JESUS, PLEASE GRANT ME THE PATIENCE TO OVERCOME THIS MORONIC INTERROGATION MOMENT OF MY LIFE BECAUSE, CHRIST, IF I PRAYED FOR STRENGTH I MIGHT END UP IN JAIL.
“Choice. They didn’t have any better choice. No opportunity to work. Haven’t been given opportunity to have good education. Maybe forced to sex by their alcoholic husbands? Don’t have access to good reproductive health. Don’t have money to pay a gynecologist or obstetrician. No choice to abort the fetus. That is what I mean by choices.”
“But still, sex education to elementary and pre-school children is not the answer to the growing population.”
“Of course.”
“They said it will just be tested on certain pilot high schools. But why turn it into a law already when the results aren’t yet in?” “I’d still go for proper and adequate information dissemination. I think that’s the best way to end this squabble.”
“But they should not. They don’t give the parents any choice.”
I rest my case.
----
TO BE BETTER INFORMED about women's rights and choices please read on the magna carta OF women here.
Ira corrected me: It is magna carta OF women not FOR women.
good change in preposition, even for preposition idiots like me.
postcripts:
discussing over a really bad spaghetti bolognese in pizza hut -- swear don't eat this -- Ira said that Sex Ed is actually short for Sexuality Education which includes far more extensive topics than just matters on copulation, or to put it simply, FUCKING, that what these myopic moralists think. Self-awareness is one of the basic things in sexuality education.
And these matters should be taught by objective thinkers and educators who have the capacity to teach, not by some church-going, straight-catholic teacher who haven't even had a single orgasm in her life.
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