Question

It is commonly observed that parents feel embarrassed to discuss freely with their adolescent children about sexuality and reproduction. The result of this parental inhibition is that the children go astray sometimes.

(a) Explain the reasons that you feel are behind such embarrassment amongst some parents to freely discuss such issues with their growing children.

(b) By taking one example of a local plant and animal, how would you help these parents to overcome such inhibitions about reproduction and sexuality? [4]

Answer 1

(a) An embarrassment amongst some parents to freely discuss such issues with their growing children may primarily be because of a conservative attitude. They may have misconceptions that children should be kept away from such discussions. It is seen that illiteracy often breeds such social myths. [2]

(b) Parents need to be made aware to realise that sexuality and reproduction are natural and that every organism is an outcome of that process. When a flower blooms on attaining reproductive maturity, it is often visited by a bee which carries the male gametes within the pollen grains and deposites them on the stigma of a flower. Such an event leads to fruit and seed formation, leading to continuity of race. [2]