My son’s love affair with hippos shows no sign of abating. Just yesterday, after our visit to the zoo, he told his mummy that hippos can’t swim because they are “too heavy” (exact words). For someone whose main language is Japanese, he must be so passionate about hippos that language poses no barrier. Actually, a more precise reasoning would be that hippos are “too dense to float”, but who am I to nitpick on his explanation? I’m his dad, not his Science teacher.
But my background as a Science teacher made me look forward to reading “The Gross Life Cycle of a Hippopotamus” with great anticipation. I can still remember the string of letters I forced my then-students to memorise: BBCCFGM. They represent the beetle, butterfly, cockroach, chicken, frog, grasshopper and mosquito - the seven animals whose life cycles primary school students are expected to learn by heart for their Primary School Learning Examination. All frightfully boring choices. I guess we should learn about mosquitoes because we are prone to dengue fever outbreaks but honestly, cockroaches and grasshoppers do not an interesting lesson make. The best thing I could do to hype up the topic was to rave about the merits of frog leg porridge, to the disgust of some of the squeamish students.
No such heroic efforts needed for the hippo. Apparently, he flicks his tail to spray his poo around whenever he wants to mark out his territory. He also flicks his poo if he wants to mate with a female hippo. If the female is interested likewise, she will poo near him - and they will do the deed. Woah! I can already imagine children’s jaws dropping and their innocence torn apart into pieces like glass windows shattered to smithereens.
So, this book lives up to its name. It contains good general information. My son asked why I mentioned the word “cow” when there is a book on hippos. I explained that the female hippo is also called the cow, gratified that his English listening skills seem to be decent.
Anyway, this book kinda left me feeling a tad sad. Our educational system is focused on stretching the youth’s potential such that it doesn’t have the space to let them learn things for FUN. Like how hippo sweat is red and octopus blood is blue. Just random cool trivia to make us marvel at the intricacies of the animal kingdom.
In any case, I hope my son’s love for hippos would remain strong and be untarnished by the pressures of our educational system. To like something for its own sake rather than spend so much time on it because it is in the syllabus.
