So, my horrid 9th graders are growing on me slowly. But the one thing about 9th graders that's different from 11th & 12th graders is their curiosity and blatant obsession with sex. For example, last week while teaching a lesson on closing arguments for the play "Twelve Angry Men" that we just read, a girl raised her hand. Keep in mind that I have seen more of this young woman's breasts in the past two weeks than I have of my own mother's in my whole life--she is well endowed and wears low cut shirts quite often. But that's another issue.
So, hand raised, "Miss, I have a question!" Me, thinking she's got a question on closing arguments b/c *duh* that's what the lesson is about, was thrown when she posed this one to me:
"Okay, so, like, when you're having an orgasm, do you pee all over the place?"
After regaining my composure I told her that I could not answer her question during class time, but if she was seriously that confused she should come talk to me after class. She was relentless, "Miss--just tell me!" I told her to ask her health teacher, and she replied that they don't get health until TWELFTH GRADE! She begged me to just tell her "yes" or "no," and giving in I said, "No--and now back to rhetorical devices to use in your closing argument."
But that little awkward interlude got me thinking. Then today the same girl and a handful of her friends came to my room during their lunch period to do some make-up work. ALL they talked about was sex, which girls gave head in the stairwell, who puts out in the 9th grade, and then they told me they were all virgins and that was okay, wasn't it? YES, I said, followed by a conversation on the long term ramifications of having sex when you're young and horny and immature and--no offense,ladies--stupid.
Wowza. And we wonder why we keep getting pregnant 9th graders (I have one now). Nobody is talking to these girls about sex and it's just plain terrifying. If I get fired from the DOE one day, it'll be because I talked to girls about sex. Mark my words. Somebody's got to...
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yes, it is an absolute shame that girls are not given sex ed in elementary school and then an advisory through middle AND high school to discuss some of THE MOST IMPORTANT things in their lives right now (sex, dating, self-worth) my seventh graders are starting to obsess too and are so confused about sex and periods and what's happening to their bodies. and i've been SPECIFICALLY told not to talk about it (though i did explain why women have periods to a girl last month - how could i not?)
ReplyDeleteyou go, ms. u - keep talking to them (you won't get fired :) who knows who you're keeping from becoming a teen mom!