-”Are you done now, “Mary”? Wipe your vag..a please. Now get up and wipe the toilet seat. No “John”- put your pen..s into your pants.”
I was in the large daycare toilet which holds about six cute little toilets, helping the golden boy to wash his hands in the manner prescribed by the Department of Health. I fell in a state of shock. I had never ever heard those terms spoken out loud in polite society- by a teacher! to her pupils! I wanted to die. I always referred to the unmentionables of my children with cute funny names “mooli“, “shoongooolz“. My mother had always a preference for names of edibles, and so we heard a lot of talk about “angoor” (grapes) and “adas” (lentils) when we were growing up. I understood that English-speaking parents also used cutsie names like “weenie” and , and, well, – I’m not sure what they use for girls…
But, we were doing it all wrong, acording to a health and seks education pamphlet which the princess brought home from school a few weeks ago. We should not use pseudonyms and childish names for the gen… but instead refer to them by their proper scientific names, the same way we talk about hands and nose. What??? For one thing, I am not even sure what the proper scientific name for those body-bits are in my mother tongue (do they even have proper scientific names????) The pamphlet went on to tell us that maintaining a healthy attutude to seks (Oh my God! Oh my God!) was essential in bringing up children, and that research proves that children who received proper seks education in schools and by their parents are less likely to have danegrous seksual practices (such as unwanted teen pregnancy) later on. We should be ready to answer all questions without squeamishness and embarrassment, fully and truthfully, and by the age of five, children should be able to identify and name all their body parts…
No! OK, Canadian Government, you can deport me back to Iran. I refuse. If being a proper Canadian means talking to my six-year old and my three-year-old about their you-know-whats, well, I prefer to walk from Haft-e-Tir to Azadi square shouting Where’s my (non-existent) vote and risk arrest/disappearence/death. Count me out. The teachers can do that seks-education thing, while hopefully teaching them to read and write properly as well. I’ll continue with the mooli and shongoolz, thank you very much.
Tags: Canadian schools, children, cultural sensibilities, different cultures, multiculturalism, seks education
June 23, 2009 at 6:05 pm |
Hahaha their real names! But you know I think they do the right thing, our attitud (being ashamed of the most natural things, our body organs) makes us hate our own bodies and needs. It’s just a matter of Habit, just get used to them, we shouldn’t be ashamed of our Hands, should we?!