What are they teaching?

Ken and Pono, our youngest, come home from cub scouts and right away Pono says, "Mom, dad says I have to ask you."
Me: Yes?
Pono: What's afterbirth? (Of course I'm eating dinner, but Pono says, Dad said it's the sack for the baby. Did it hurt?
Me: Did having you hurt? Yes. Did the afterbirth hurt? No. Where is this coming from? Is that what you guys were talking about at cub scouts? (Ken's the pack leader - I know he was spending this afternoon trying to figure out what he was covering tonight, but come on.)
Pono: You know that chant about Papa and Wakea?
Me: Yes, (now Ahi's getting involved in the conversation from the other room, I hear him chanting)
O Wakea noho ia Papahanaumoku
Hanau o Hawai'i he moku
Hanau o Maui he moku . . .
Pono: The end of the chant says that Kaho'olawe is the afterbirth. I wanted to know what that was.
Ahi: He 'ula a'o Kaho'olawe - oh yeah, I guess so, afterbirth.
Me: How long ago did you learn about this? Did your kumu translate for you and say afterbirth? Was Kumu Crabbe talking about it?
Pono: No. Kumu Silva talked about it but she said we couldn't ask questions until she was done explaining, but we ran out of time.
Ok - let me process this. Pono had Kumu Silva in 4th grade. He is in 5th grade. I remember helping him memorize this chant and that was last fall, so that means that Pono has been thinking about this afterbirth question for ONE YEAR!

What's going on in school? What are they teaching? I may be old fashioned, but I think that certain things should be taught at school and certain things should be taught at home. How to put the dishes away and feed the dog. . . home lessons. But afterbirth and sex are definitely things that should be taught at school. That's where I learned about it, and what's good enough for me. . . ;-)

Comments

Liana said…

ONE YEAR LATER!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

September 19, 2008 at 12:26 PM

Anonymous said…

Ouch. You know, at my house that's cause to bust out all the anatomy books, and have a mini lesson on childbirthing... which Tyler did (in 5th grade) and it led to a mini lecture. Needless to say, Logan then got really disgusted (was in 3rd grade at the time) and walked away while saying "ohhhh that's GROSS!!!".

September 21, 2008 at 9:38 PM

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