Health Class

This morning, I had my AP Literature test and then spent the rest of the day hanging out at school. Nothing's happening anymore, but I like school, and so I decided to hang out here for the last two periods instead of going home and doing nothing. It's kind of nostalgic to wander around here with all the little'uns, eavesdropping on their conversations and reveling sadistically in their school stress. So, I sat in on a bit of Rhetoric class, and I went to a few minutes of Art History, and about half an hour of freshman Health. I figured it'd be wise to seize the opportunity to sit in on Health, because I'm going to be spending a whole lot of time and effort coming up with ways to improve it in the next year or two or however long it takes. They were conveniently in the middle of the sex unit, so the conversation didn't feel too uncomfortable to bring up. I've briefly talked to Mrs. Miller, the Health teacher, about gender identity last year, since I did a speech on GD in her class. And from that conversation, I inferred that she was more open-minded about the way these things work than people normally are here. But I didn't know exactly how far she was willing to go.

As I was leaving, I decided to mention that I've been talking to administration about broadening education on more controversial, but important psychosocial issues in Health class. I interrupted myself with an explanation of my Senior Project, and she seemed very interested, asking for the date of my presentation. When I'd come full circle, explaining that my preparation for the latter two topics has prompted me to think much more seriously about what Bear Creek can do to help kids work through those issues, she agreed with me, saying that she's actually been talking to administration about the same thing. She explained that kids started coming to her with a lot of questions about homosexuality, and she didn't know how much she could say to answer them. So she went up a couple steps to ask the authorities what to do about it.  "They always say that those are things the parents should talk to their kids about," she said, "but they don't." I smiled, and voiced my agreement, and we talked about that for a few minutes. "If not here, then where? I actually think many parents would really appreciate it."

All these quotes are direct quotes: I went straight to my laptop after this conversation and typed them up so I would be able to include what I could verbatim. If you know Bear Creek and you know why these issues are important, you know how incredible it is to hear these things spoken by a member of the faculty here - and not just a member of the faculty, but (I'm tempted to say, providentially) the very woman that teaches the class in question.

As we spoke, and I explained the ideas I've been discussing with Mr. Gephart, she mentioned that she even thinks there could be a JanTerm class on gender and sexuality. That has never even occurred to me, perhaps because it would have seemed too completely unrealistic. It would require the school to publicize their currently-nonexistent openness about the discussion. But perhaps the fact that it's completely optional might make it easier to accept. Eventually.

Not only is she willing and eager to teach on this subject, she understands the risks involved with the absence of such education in the curriculum. "A lot of kids, especially around this age, get their information from their friends." She gave a sideways glance and a bit of a smirk at the kids in the cluster of desks next to us. "And it's not exactly the most reliable source." (The sad part about the fact that statement is that it's super hush-hush even among a lot of the students. At least in my personal experience, the conversation is so closed that even if you bring it up with kids, they don't respond substantially or comfortably.) She also chuckled and grimaced appropriately when I told her that administration has actually asked me "why this conversation is relevant to our community." To most people here, that isn't funny. I'd love to see a time when that seems a ludicrous question to everyone. But before the dialogue actually happens, it ain't gonna change.