Boys to Men

After a curious 6th grader began asking questions, a routine health lesson turned into a discussion about birds and bees.

By Dennis Donoghue

We decided this year to show Growing Up , a video depicting the physical and psychological changes brought on by puberty, in September instead of waiting until spring. After just a few weeks of school, we found ourselves wrenching open windows to ventilate classrooms as soon as the kids returned from PE classes. They needed information on hygiene, among other things. Notices about the content of the video, written by our school nurse on bright-orange paper, went home with students a few days before the viewing.

That Friday afternoon, the girls from the four classes gathered with the female staff to watch their version. The 50 or so boys crowded into my classroom because I was the only male teacher on the team. We’d shown Growing Up before—to mostly silent, seemingly unappreciative audiences. I flipped off the lights, shoved in the tape, and settled back into what I thought would be an uneventful lesson.

In the 15-minute video, a rock musician strums a guitar and talks about how his own voice changed when he went through puberty. He speaks of other hormonal changes that produce body hair, pimples, and, of course, ejaculations. He describes the roles of sperm and ova as diagrams of human reproduction apparatuses fill the screen. The boys and I stared at those diagrams—afraid, I guess, to look anywhere else. The video ends with the musician telling the viewers not to worry, that these changes in their bodies are normal and that it’s a fine idea to talk to someone...