Please Pass the Stupid
Yesterday was Career Day at school. Each class had 4 pairs of speakers come through and talk to the kids about their jobs. Most of them were extremely good. The kids behaved, asked appropriate questions, and were mostly polite. A few needed to have the fear of God put in them as a reminder, but fortunately I have gotten better at doing that without saying a word.
Our class had three people with government jobs come through-- two had to do with natural resource conservation. I thought it was odd that they'd send us 2 very similar jobs. We also had some folks from the Boy Scouts, and while they didn't talk much about their job, their "stay in school and respect your teachers" speech was the most powerful one I've ever heard, and the kids listened. Kudos to the Boy Scouts. Methinks my Little Wendol may have to join their ranks when he's old enough.
Another class got to hear a lady from the health department who goes around and gives talks about abstinence, std's, etc. I know this because once the speakers were gone and we went back to the regular schedule, I had some of the kids from that group in my later classes and they couldn't stop talking about it. One student in 4th period told me that the lady had said that if you perform oral sex on a guy and...um...swallow that you could still get pregnant because there's a chance that it could still get to the right part of your body. I asked the girl if she had misunderstood. Maybe the speaker was telling her she could get a disease from that. No, she insisted, you can get pregnant from that.
Umkay. Considering that they know I'm pregnant, I was afraid of how personal that conversation could have become had I pursued it, so I still chalked it up to a misunderstanding-- or maybe the kid just wanted to say something disgusting to get a reaction out of me. Who knows.
Enter 6th period. In the last 5 minutes of class, once all our English ducks were in a row, I asked the kids to tell me who their favorite speakers were and why. Another student told me about the sex speech. She told me the same thing the other kid had said about oral sex. You can get pregnant, she insisted.
Now, the first kid who reported this newfound ignorance was an 8th grader, and the second one was a 7th grader. That means they heard the same speaker at different times. (The speakers rotated between classrooms every 20 minutes.) That means the woman MUST have said that-- and more than once!
I'm all for educating kids on the facts about sex. They need to know. We need to be frank with them, in my humble opinion, because if we choose not to educate them, someone else will. But give them facts, not lies. Bullshitting them on that stuff to scare them is the worst thing you could do, as evidenced by the fact that they are already trotting around trying to confirm the information with other adults. What do you think the other adults are going to say when they ask them about this? They're going to tell them it's shit! I did! They didn't believe me, but I was the first one they asked about it. By the time they get to adult number 3, they'll see the light. And then what will they think? That if the lady bullshitted them on that, she might've bullshitted them on other things? That the whole "be careful" speech is based on crap? I think that is exactly what they'll conclude. Then when they find themselves in a steamy situation with a member of the opposite sex and those hormones are screaming stick it in! there will be no reason not to, condom or not.
A lot more could have been accomplished by being honest with them. The speaker could've just told them the facts very frankly. It's not like you have to lie about sex to get their attention when you're talking about it-- all you have to do is bring it up, and you've got their undivided attention, period. By bullshitting them, she defeated her own purpose. But I guess if kids stop getting pregnant and getting std's, she's out of a job. So maybe it was a huge success from her standpoint.
Stupid bitch.
Today will be less exciting. They've got to take a quiz, and the rest of their time with me will be uneventful. I hope to get them to read today. Getting them to do work is becoming more and more difficult, and the days are starting to feel longer. Spring Fever has set in. The sun is shining, it's warm, and everyone feels so oppressed having to sit in a classroom and watch the perfect weather through a window.
Our class had three people with government jobs come through-- two had to do with natural resource conservation. I thought it was odd that they'd send us 2 very similar jobs. We also had some folks from the Boy Scouts, and while they didn't talk much about their job, their "stay in school and respect your teachers" speech was the most powerful one I've ever heard, and the kids listened. Kudos to the Boy Scouts. Methinks my Little Wendol may have to join their ranks when he's old enough.
Another class got to hear a lady from the health department who goes around and gives talks about abstinence, std's, etc. I know this because once the speakers were gone and we went back to the regular schedule, I had some of the kids from that group in my later classes and they couldn't stop talking about it. One student in 4th period told me that the lady had said that if you perform oral sex on a guy and...um...swallow that you could still get pregnant because there's a chance that it could still get to the right part of your body. I asked the girl if she had misunderstood. Maybe the speaker was telling her she could get a disease from that. No, she insisted, you can get pregnant from that.
Umkay. Considering that they know I'm pregnant, I was afraid of how personal that conversation could have become had I pursued it, so I still chalked it up to a misunderstanding-- or maybe the kid just wanted to say something disgusting to get a reaction out of me. Who knows.
Enter 6th period. In the last 5 minutes of class, once all our English ducks were in a row, I asked the kids to tell me who their favorite speakers were and why. Another student told me about the sex speech. She told me the same thing the other kid had said about oral sex. You can get pregnant, she insisted.
Now, the first kid who reported this newfound ignorance was an 8th grader, and the second one was a 7th grader. That means they heard the same speaker at different times. (The speakers rotated between classrooms every 20 minutes.) That means the woman MUST have said that-- and more than once!
I'm all for educating kids on the facts about sex. They need to know. We need to be frank with them, in my humble opinion, because if we choose not to educate them, someone else will. But give them facts, not lies. Bullshitting them on that stuff to scare them is the worst thing you could do, as evidenced by the fact that they are already trotting around trying to confirm the information with other adults. What do you think the other adults are going to say when they ask them about this? They're going to tell them it's shit! I did! They didn't believe me, but I was the first one they asked about it. By the time they get to adult number 3, they'll see the light. And then what will they think? That if the lady bullshitted them on that, she might've bullshitted them on other things? That the whole "be careful" speech is based on crap? I think that is exactly what they'll conclude. Then when they find themselves in a steamy situation with a member of the opposite sex and those hormones are screaming stick it in! there will be no reason not to, condom or not.
A lot more could have been accomplished by being honest with them. The speaker could've just told them the facts very frankly. It's not like you have to lie about sex to get their attention when you're talking about it-- all you have to do is bring it up, and you've got their undivided attention, period. By bullshitting them, she defeated her own purpose. But I guess if kids stop getting pregnant and getting std's, she's out of a job. So maybe it was a huge success from her standpoint.
Stupid bitch.
Today will be less exciting. They've got to take a quiz, and the rest of their time with me will be uneventful. I hope to get them to read today. Getting them to do work is becoming more and more difficult, and the days are starting to feel longer. Spring Fever has set in. The sun is shining, it's warm, and everyone feels so oppressed having to sit in a classroom and watch the perfect weather through a window.
Labels: Good Old Fashioned Bitchin', professional screw-ups, stupid people, The Government is Raping Us
i hope you'll call the state supervisor for your district health department and complain about that person. That is just completely asinine. Gesh!
Posted by
jac |
7:10 AM
Unfortunately, that's the way the "abstinence only" bunch operates. I've heard many stories about the lies they tell children. No one ever seems to call them on it, either.
Posted by
Betty |
2:41 PM
A friend of mine recently told me that her Aunt told her nine-year-old and 11-year-old sons that if they did "it" before marriage it would go red and fall off
Posted by
Anonymous |
8:09 AM
Rachy,
That is tantamount to telling them they'll go blind for masturbating.
Posted by
Mommy Needs a Xanax |
8:35 PM