Anatomy for education

 by Paula Johanson

How are children and youths to learn about bodies for health and sex education? This topic is a matter of careful thought for many parents. And there are resources to help families with learning the science of anatomy for health and sex education.

Some of these resources are formal and written about the science of how this knowledge helps people. The United Nations World Health Organization has an e-book on International technical guidance on sexuality education, available for free download. Click on this link to find their page with links to this free e-book in English, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Russian, and also a link to another page with several more free articles to download in English.

For people needing something more oriented to family learning, there's a whole page of resources recommended by doctors on body knowledge and more available at this link from Planned Parenthood. This list includes recommended books for parents to read on their own and books they can share with their children.

Some teenagers and parents find the website Scarleteen to be useful, with articles on bodies, health, gender, relationships, and more. Scarleteen has been online for over twenty years. While it's not a place for doing science, it's a place for learning. It also has places to ask questions, including a message board and live chat.

Among the newest resources now available is We Are Beautiful, with a website at this link. The organisers of this website are concerned about a lack of educational material that shows the diversity of our bodies. As they note, some people worry that their bodies are ugly. This website has images (in green or purple) of body parts based on adults of many ages and shapes, to show the variety of shape that is normal. These images are also free downloads for a 3D printer.

Even adults who think they know all about their bodies can find things to learn from these books and websites, to improve their knowledge and health.