Wednesday, March 2, 2011
First day back from mid-term vacation. I ask my Irish Drama class how their break went. "Well," said a student brightly, "I'm no longer a 22-year-old virgin!".
I blinked at her with roughly the expression my cat used to get when he jumped into the bathtub and found the shower was still on.
She let the other shoe drop: "I'm now a 23-year-old virgin!!!". This may be the only time in my teaching career that I have been left entirely without words.
Yes, I see what you mean! It was usually my ten and eleven year olds that rendered me speechless rather than my undergrads. But I have to say it was normally with comments on the status of their virginity one way or the other!
Oh my god. Clearly I am in denial about the innocence of the youth. Oddly enough, I would say that (in general) my university students are more embarrassed to talk about sex than I am. Obviously not in this class, which was the same one that taught me the meaning of the term "handcuff party."
SP NOOOOOOO! I should have written it WASN"T normally with comments about their virginity. How's that for a Freudian slip? However, I did have one eleven year old who brought me in a copy of Judy Blume's 'Forever' and asked me if I'd read it in what was a deliberate attempt to shock me. I suspect her mother was behind it!
Oh, thank God. My sense of the rightness of the world has been restored....
Somehow I think I managed to avoid ready Judy Blume throughout my entire childhood. How did I do this?