Reproduction and the International School

Sometimes I forget that I'm working with much younger students than I was last year. After the debacle of the "Community Health Action Plan" projects last year, where students decided to make business plans to help with STD awareness...and I was thoroughly grossed out with (badly) selected (NSFW)  images, factoids, and general misinformation...I guess I'd gotten a little jaded.

Well, this year, it's been a very large change of pace, academically and professionally for me.

I teach middle school, but they also take some of their classes in immersion Spanish. The textbooks are from Mexico, and the names of the books are listed in Spanish (duh). I've taken to teasing our middle schoolers whenever something is an innuendo with the phrase "sexto grado." It just means "Sixth grade." That's it. Nothing more. EXCEPT for a student who giggles and giggles any time a permutation of the word "sex"-- meaning gender, a quality, an act, etc. is used. Including "sexto grado."

Some of the kids are studying ancient civilizations, which included a project about ancient Mayan artifacts, and they made little clay versions of tools and pottery. There's a statue that looks something like the ones below-- that was considered a "mother-goddess" figure and a kid had to form it with clay. He was very embarrassed. I made sure to tell him that people in ancient cultures probably weren't scared about sexto grado.



The middle school girls are learning about human reproduction, anatomy, and self-protection. This is progressive curriculum (to me, coming from the South!) and really good, deep conversations are going on. I'm thoroughly impressed. One male teacher passed the lesson off to a female colleague, saying, "I can let you teach this to yourselves, or you can let Ms. A teach it to you. I think you will all be more comfortable this way." I hope when you read that, it had an accent, because he does. Hearing com-for-tah-bull in that context made me laugh. When the girls joked to me about it, I just shrugged and told me, "I guess he's no good at teaching sexto grado!"


And the piece-de-resistance about sexto grado comes from an overheard conversation from a primary-grade little boy and his mum. They are not from America, so hearing this with his little squeaky voice and her beautiful accent-- oh, priceless. (Did I mention that she's the prettiest pregnant lady ever? It looks like she swallowed a basketball. Even in this chilly 18 degree weather, she wears bulky sweaters and looks adorable.* See below.)

Little boy: Mum, how does the baby get out of your belly?
Mom: Well, there's a secret door.
Little boy:  So how did he get in there? In the secret door?
Mom: (This one threw her for a loop, so she was thinking.)
Little boy: (Looking absolutely horrified, putting this all together in his brain) Mummy, did you EAT the baby? Is that why he's in your belly and your belly is fat!?
Mom: No, the baby came in through the secret door too.
Little boy: (Walking away from her) I think you ate my baby brother.

So that's why childbirth is so easy. The baby just comes out of this secret door!

I'm thinking this is maybe why my middle schoolers are giggling about reproduction. Deep-seeded information about secret doors and all.  Oh, sexto grado.



* I must mention, however, that my sister, due in December,  is actually the prettiest pregnant lady ever. Just to be fair.