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O
ne father we know recently
pulled a Watergate
in
hisown
borne, taping a conversation
between himself and his two school–
age sons. Here's how it went:
"You know, you two asked me
this moming how we get children–
remember?"
"Yeah."
"Well, remember how we talked
about the similarities and dilfer–
ences between animals and human
beings? You know that every animal
has a different number of chromo–
somes? And every animal has a
mother and a father? He gets half of
his chromosomes from ..."
" ... the female. Right?"
"Right. And half from the
father."
"But, Daddy, how
does
he get half
the chromosomes from the mother
and half from the father?"
The sixties saw a noisy con–
frontation between sex educa–
tors who wanted to introduce
more than birds, bees and
hamsters into the currículum
and peop/e who felt that par–
ents alone shou/d te// their
chíldren the facts of life. Now
that the furor has díed down,
some question the effec–
tiveness of those sex educa–
flan programs that remain.
Here's what you can do to
make sure your chíldren re–
ceive the information they
need in this sensitive area.
by
Carole Ritter
"That's the question, isn't it ..."
"Yeah, that's the question we
asked this morning."
"Well, couldn't you guess?"
"Nope."
"Well, you know, Sones out there
in the yard- Tulfy is his mother and
he looks a lot like bis mother and
Bandit is his father, so it would be
silly for you guys to think that 1
could be your father unless you had
some of my chromosomes. Right?
You are one-half me and one-half
your mother."
"Oh."
"You remember meiosis and mi–
tosis, don't you?
lt
works
in
people
just like in animals. Now does that
answer your question?"
"Well- you still haven't told me
about
how
1 get half of you and half
ofMommy."
"J
can't quite hear you-your
mouth's full ofbread."
"1 mean, you know, dogs, they
breed. How do you and Mommy
breed?"
"Okay- you know how Tulfy has
a special place in her belly called a
uterus where her puppies grow?
And Mommy has a special place
where you grew? And Tulfy feeds
her puppies milk just Like Mommy
se
e ouca T1on
WhatAre
Your
Children
Learning
? .