Fifties biology

Endoplasmicreticulum. There! Are you impressed? I’ve always loved that word.

I think it is the nervous system

Obviously, mum couldn't explain the difference between our dog's bleeding when on heat and a woman's menstrual blood. It was quite a useful analogy until, some years later, when the local boy dogs were gathered round our back gate, it occurred to me to ask if menstruation was a sign that I was fertile.

Having pets teaches children a lot about birth and death and how mammals are made. It’s amazing how ignorant many people are about their own anatomy and how our bodies work.
The dog’s seasons are a good place to start sex education but dogs and cats don’t menstruate.

When our boxer bitch went on heat for the first time, when I was about 11, my Mum told me about reproduction and menstruation - though perhaps not all about them! | gave up science classes after third year, as I wanted to take Classics. I learnt a good deal about the 'facts of life' from prolonged perusal of the two Penguin volumes of Greek myths - Greek gods and goddesses were a randy bunch.

In my parents’ bookshelf there were two books called The Marriage Book and The Motherhood Book. When I was about ten I used to sneak these out and hide them in the roof of my dolls’ house. I have no idea whether my mother knew or not. The books fascinated me, but I didn’t understand them at all.

Luckily my mother told me about periods etc, plus there was a great deal of gossip at school. I was the first in my form, which made me a sort of heroine. I was 11 when I had my first period.

I did A level biology and there was a lot about fruit flies and Darwin. You ought to see what is taught now. It is honestly mind blowing how much our knowledge has come on in 40 years

My original "facts of life" talk when I was 10 came from my mother after we had visited several boarding schools and I asked her what the little brown bags with pictures of ladies in crinolines were for.
Mum always packed "STs" in my trunk every term "just in case" but by the time I started (14, and second to last in my class) she had to rush out and buy some more (luckily I was at home at the time!) as they had all been "borrowed" in emergencies by friends who knew I didn't need them at the time.
"The Talk" I obviously filed away in my little head as "irrelevant" as I had to be told again some years on, about 12 or 13?
I remember Mum asking me what I knew, saying I must have heard things from the girls at school to which I replied "Yes, but I don't believe them, that would be too disgusting!"
The first time I saw an erect penis was in some article in the Times newspaper which we were allowed to read in the common room at school and I was beyond shocked! - of course once the teachers realised what all the giggling was about it was swiftly removed!
I had two brothers, 3and1/2 and 5 years younger than me, so that was all the male anatomy I had ever seen at that point!

Another one was Euglena, I remember drawing that too.

Allira

😀 There were others with more cells but I've forgotten their names.

We had to make careful drawings of them!

When I was at boarding school ("for young ladies"!) from 1965 to 1972 I remember the drawing as the best part of Biology, but in the year of our O levels the teacher writing on my work something along the lines of "9/10, but this is the last time marks will be awarded for the quality of your drawings. If time existed in exams to do this all would be well, but it doesn't, so your time would be better spent revising"
Needless to say I failed Biology! I think we did learn a bit of useful stuff, science wise as it was the only "science" we did (e.g.refraction of light etc) and we did touch on sexual reproduction.
Our poor teacher in our O level year was a young man (27) in an all girls school and came in for a lot of ribbing.
When asked what subject we most wanted to revise we all chorused "Sexual reproduction please sir!"
He blushed very easily too but never shied away from answering any of our questions about sex, drugs, diet or whatever.
I'm sorry, Mr Connor, for how we treated you.
(e.g. one lesson came directly after a games lesson: "Oh sorry Mr Connor, did I forget to do up my blouse?" etc.)

In later years when I was working as a TA I realised how little I knew about Science in general and studied GCSE Science and got an A!

At my small grammar school, we were given sex education in biology. How rabbits reproduce was explained quite truthfully, including "the male rabbit deposits sperm which joins with the egg" then eventually the final sentence "and it's a similar process in humans" 🤣🤣
Later we had a teacher from the teacher training college across the road who was probably on teacher practice, but gave us the full lowdown. Eyes out on stalks at some of her blackboard drawings!

My friend and I hadn't learned much about human reproduction at school, so when we were 15 we disguised ourselves to look older and went and bought a book about sex for engaged women. I think my friend even wore a fake engagement ring. Disappointingly it gave very little information about the act so we were left none the wiser.

I asked my Mum where my newborn Sister had come from. She said ...I got her from Marks and Spencers. Then I asked where I came from .....Oh...Woolworths was her answer !

At my girls high school we did minimal science until A levels. The usual career path was nursing or teaching and very few girls got to university.
My family moved as I went into O levels and my new school was a small rural grammar. Basically girls there did English, French and History and boys did maths, physics and Chemistry.

😀 There were others with more cells but I've forgotten their names.

We had to make careful drawings of them!

Ah, I see what Polremy meant now Allera, thanks. Not an acronym for body functions in human biology like grimren.

bonbons01

That's interesting Polremy, do you remember, at all, why it was amoebas?

Yes, I remember the first Biology lesson was about amoebas!

I'm surprised that a top set did not do Biology and Latin.

Both would be required for a future career in any form of medicine at that time.

Mind you, although they were both taught at my Girls' High School any aspirations to aim for medicine as a career was discouraged. We were all meant to become teachers.

Thank goodness everything has changed since the 1950s/early 60s.

That's interesting Polremy, do you remember, at all, why it was amoebas?

At my convent grammar school in the late 50s/early 60s the top set did Latin and the second set did biology.

I did have one biology lesson - just the one in all of my seven years there - when one of our teachers was off sick.
I seem to remember it was all about amoebas(sp).

I remember it as GRIMREN:
Growth
Respiration
Irritability
Movement
Excretion
Reproduction
Nutrition

So seven, rather than 5.

jocork

Science has certainly moved on a lot since school in the 50s ad 60s. I have a degree in applied biology, then trained as a science teacher. Some of what I learnt at university is now part of GCSE science. They no longer disect animals in schools, just hearts from the butchers and lots of students refuse.

I would imagine animals could be dissected or studied with a 3D computer program now. No need to touch anything organic.

Nutrition (or Feeding), Respiration, Excretion, Reproduction (or Growth/Reproduction), and Movement (or Sensitivity/Response)

Excretion??

I did anatomy and physiology, taught by a very prim, unmarried, nurse tutor. We were taught about reproduction starting with the sperm making their way towards the egg. At no point did anyone dare to ask how the sperm got there.