Guest Appearance : The Sex

Abby gave a sex talk to 7th grade last week. Naturally, it provided an amusing Abby in Honduras blog post. She's my celebrity guest this post. Read, laugh, enjoy, and pay special attention to the grammar of the anonymous questions...that's my favorite part.

The Sex

Nothing like the topic of sex to motivate me to write on my blog again. So, I decided that 7th grade needed to have a little sex education. Honduras is still a very closed society when it comes to sex. Most people still feel that you lose your virginity if you put in a tampon! Obviously, the kids have never had someone speak openly, directly, and without embarrassment to them about sex. Their 13 year old ears perked up, like puppies hearing food poured in a bowl, as soon as they heard that forbidden word: SEX. The class that can't sit still, the class that never shuts up, the class that never listens, sat down, shut up, and listened. It was truly amazing.

I started by giving them a 40 minute lecture on condoms, STDs, pregnancy, you know, the usual. I told them to go home and write, anonymously, any more questions they had about sex, and I would answer them the next day in class.

The next day, I didn't have class with them until the end of school. During morning assembly, during both recesses, and as soon as I walked into class that afternoon I had swarms of 7th graders making sure I was going to give the charla (talk) that day about sex. I went around the classroom and collected all their questions. Seriously, how can I describe their eager faces? Eyes excited, but faces nervous. A little embarrassed, yet anxiously awaiting the answer to their most forbidden of questions. Afraid to be interested, but unable to hide their interest. And, as they told me later, amazed at the directness with which I would speak about this taboo subject, (thank you Santa Cruz and Juliana Molina for this ability).

Let me assure you that I answered all questions to the best of my ability and at an appropriate level for 13 year olds. Their questions were particularly hilarious because their English isn't very good, so the way they asked the questions were funny. Here, for your enjoyment, are some of the questions I received (I'll put my own translation of the question in brackets if I think you won't understand what they meant. I've left all spelling mistakes intact):

1. When someone masturbate, they have lost they virginity?
2. How women feels when do sex?
3. Do you are virgen (if we can know) [my translation: Are you a virgin?; my answer: thats a personal question so I'm not going to answer that]
4. Can a penis or a comdom explode?
5. What is masturbe?
   
6. How the sex start?
7. How does a person put a condom in itself (man)? [how does a man put a condom on himself?]
8. How can you have twins?
9. What happen when a woman is pregnant and she have the sex?
10. Does the women likes the men does the sex with she? [Do women like it when men have sex with them.]
11. What happen, feels when a women is exited? [What happens and how does it feel when a woman is sexually excited?]
12. Why the women faint when have sex? [I seriously have no idea what this kid meant by that]

The best part about this entire talk was at the end, I showed them drawings of female and male anatomy. One girl asked if you pee after you have sex, can you prevent yourself from getting pregnant because the pee will wash all the sperm out. So they didn't know that there is the urethra and the vagina and they are separate. After I explained to them that there were two holes, and the penis only goes into one of them, every single boy rushed up to me and said "Show me Miss, show me on the picture. Show me." In other words, show me where I put my penis! SHOW ME! I couldn't help it, I laughed out loud. So I showed them.

It was really cool to see how comfortable they were with me. At the beginning of the talk, the vice principal sat in the classroom, and the kids wouldn't ask me anything after I answered some of the questions. They don't trust the vice principal at all. As soon as the vice principal left I was bombarded with more questions they had thought of. Having anonymous letters was a good way to start the discussion, to get past their embarrassment, but in the end, we didn't need anything to be anonymous. It was obvious that they felt my classroom was a safe place for them to ask anything they wanted. Especially given the cultural climate here and the idea ingrained in them that you shouldn't talk about sex, I was really happy that they were able to open up so much and asked so many more questions than were originally on their anonymous sheets. I have completely failed in classroom control, but I have been able to create a safe environment for them, which to me is more important than them behaving during class.

Hopefully these kids will have safe, happy sex when they're ready. And I hope they remember that women enjoy sex. They didn't seem to know that this was possible...