Some educational company is aggressively wooing my child. Look at this poster of the human digestive system. Coloured and comes with a sticker. Free. No strings attached.

Anyway, I’m quite humbled by the Japanese depiction. The overarching aim is for kids to cultivate healthy habits so that they can “make good faeces” (a tad crude, but there you go. That’s life.)

On the other hand, our elementary educational system doesn’t introduce the anus. My preoccupation as a Science teacher is to guide students to interpret graphs associated with digestion. Students may have the facts at their fingertips but they will be at a loss for words and not know how to apply their knowledge when confronted with such graphs. Thus, my cognitive and emotional energy goes into ensuring that they won’t be stumped by such questions during exams.

So, I’m preparing my child a couple of years earlier in hopes that this will save me much grief down the road. And when I have a calmer headspace, I can dwell on how to make good faeces lol.