Body Awareness

JUNE 2002

Of the many problems facing our youth, one of the most overlooked may be the lack of knowledge they have regarding their own bodies. More than one recent study has shown a particular ignorance in the area of the pooper. Why is it that in the most technologically advanced country on the planet, we have the highest percentage of young people who know nearly nothing about the asshole? America used to lead in this area, and as late as 1979 boasted top scores on all school-age children subjected to testing pertaining to knowledge of the back door. Who has dropped the ball in this area?

Some claim that our efforts to increase diversity, to provide a multicultural, well-balanced, compassionate education have forced courses on the Hershey Highway to take a back seat. Others point to the mad rush to get more computers into the classroom as the culprit in superceding instruction on the crusty canal. Still others suggest that life in our technologically cutting-edge, secular age itself makes questions about an anachronistic fudge hole as irrelevant as debates over phrenology.

Increasingly, young people have been turning to the Internet for answers to their curiosity about the poop chute. Concern over this phenomenon has been voiced by parents and educators who, understandable, question whether the web is suitable for providing an appropriate introduction to the brown eye.

Recently, as prominent a voice as National Organization for Women President Ruth Agincort has spoken in these pages on the crisis saying, "This a silent plague of ignorance -- a potential catastrophe waiting to happen -- that has been virtually ignored for the last ten years by the education system and government officials who should know better. If something isn't done soon, we risk ushering into adulthood an entire generation who are ignorant of their barnholes...we have to ask ourselves if that's a reality we are ready to face."

Raising fudge tunnel awareness will not be an easy task but it is one we must embrace if we are at all concerned about the quality of life for our young people. Many rotary clubs and church groups have already taken up the task but grass roots organizing is only the start. Any parent should be concerned that Washington has remained silent on this issue.

In decades past, the educational cry of alarm was "Why can't Johnny read?" With this new epidemic of ignorance facing us, will the plea for rescuing education now become, "Why doesn't Johnny know anything about his shit pipe?"

 

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