By Micah Ingram and Malaya Madison
I’m willing to bet that every single person reading this has either survived or is currently bracing themselves for the most universally awkward rite of passage in the high school experience.
Yes, you guessed it- the 9th-grade unit on human sexuality and reproduction. It’s that legendary, deeply uncomfortable week where eye contact goes to die, the whole room just gets really quiet, anatomical diagrams become the most traumatizing yet interesting thing, and a room full of teenagers suddenly finds the floor absolutely fascinating.
Of course, while every class is different, every teacher is different, and every student’s experience with this unit is different, the memories seem to last.
Junior Bridget Valls, whose teacher was Mr. Crowley, .summed up her experience as: “Helpful and funny.” Sophomore Ella Harvey, on the other hand, recalled the unit as “uncomfortable and Informative.” Her teacher was Dr. Reynolds.
Though it was uncomfortable, Ella said it was that very discomfort that made it “pretty easy to laugh.”
We asked if there was a particular moment when the whole class just lost it and couldn’t stop laughing.
Bridget and Ella specifically explained that almost all the activities provoked commotion or laughter from the class. They explained that some of the unique activities that they would do were learning about things like condoms.
But beneath the surface level giggles and the chaos of the hands-on activities, a startling realization began to sink in for Ella. While the girls in the room were familiar, nodding their heads to the information, the boys seemed to be processing entirely new information. Ella pointed out that the huge knowledge gap was more concerning and scary than entertaining.
We asked if there were any words or advice they wanted to share with future kids going into this class. “Pay attention and take notes,” they urged, noting that the information is more than just a requirement for a grade. It’s one of those rare school moments where the “real world” application is immediate and important. Bridget and Ella both expressed that while the diagrams might feel traumatizing now, the knowledge becomes an essential toolkit for life later on.
But the students aren’t the only ones hoping the “trauma” turns into actual education. Jim Crowley, Upper School Science Teacher, also hopes for this stigma to be broken. He pointed out that pop culture can sometimes help with reducing the discomfort around the topic.
“In today’s music, swearing and sexuality are incredibly common, but sexuality has always been there,” he said, even if it used to be more understated. ”
If you happen to be in the room next to Mr. Crowley, you will hear all types of music from old hits from Salt-N-Peppa to present-day, like Nicki Minaj or Rihanna.
Mr.Crowley plays music at the beginning of his class during this unit to point out “that there’s this influencing factor beyond what might be your normal parents, or just your peers. There’s this whole bigger world influencing how you view sexuality, and that’s the role of the songs.”
Was it ever uncomfortable for teachers to teach the unit? “You, as the presenter, are a little bit uncomfortable because you don’t know how the audience is going to take things,” Mr. Crowley explained.
To bridge that gap and make the experience less intimidating, teachers have turned to technology to create a ‘judgment-free’ zone. By using a virtual anonymous question box, they provide a safe space where students “can bypass the face-to-face embarrassment and get the real answers they need.”
As students, we sometimes fail to realize that we aren’t just asking our science teachers to explain biology; we’re asking them to explain the world. We are asking them to be mentors and navigators through a minefield of sensitive topics with students who may have been raised with different beliefs and in different cultures.
Mr. Crowley mentioned that he hopes what he says doesn’t upset people, but at the same time, as a teacher, he’s “trying to get students to think beyond their own experiences.”
Plenty of experiences and memories are also created during this unit, including immersive opportunities like pulling all the students up close for a tour of contraceptives or having to blindly draw the male and female reproductive organs.
All of these experiences are intended to ”break the ice and awkwardness of the topic,” Mr. Crowley said. He also likes to use mixers, where he pulls students together to answer “awkward” but very important questions to encourage camaraderie and lead a deeper conversation where everyone is comfortable sharing their experiences.
Mr. Crowley expressed how, from the very beginning, he noticed how when he brought up eyeballs or the digestive system, people were like completely fine, but when he brought up talking about the “v word or p word,” there was suddenly squirming and a silence that says a lot throughout the class.
But for Mr. Crowley, this reaction isn’t just a classroom quirk; it’s a reminder that drives him to break the generational wall of silence he experienced long before he was the one standing at the front of the room.
He compared his own experience learning about it to the movie “Mean Girls.” Mr. Crowley recalled his own public school education as a rigid lecture delivered by a PE teacher who seemed to find the material as useless as the students did.
While his past curriculum was defined by a “just don’t do it” approach that strictly avoided anything remotely “interesting” or real, Mr. Crowley refuses to let his own classroom fall into that same trap of silence. He believes that in a society already buzzing with complex opinions, he has a responsibility to replace that outdated awkwardness with actual knowledge, ensuring his students are truly prepared for the world.
Wrapping the interview up, we asked Mr. Crowley what he hoped his students get from this part of the class. “I want them to be updated on current topics and conversations, and I want them to be aware of their own bodies, changes in development, and feel comfortable with those things happening in the time that they’re happening because they’re not all in sync with each other,” he said.
Perhaps it takes time to reach that comfort, because we had trouble finding current ninth-graders willing to be interviewed, and the ones we did interview seemed a little uncomfortable.
We caught Benny Crane, Phillip Claybrooks, and Zoe Bockel in Dr.Shelander Biology class as they were doing the test corrections for this very unit.
Benny mentioned that “it was cool to learn about our bodies.” Phillip responded, “Yeah, it was a great experience.” Let’s just say they didn’t want to answer any other questions…
Zoe said that her class handled it pretty well until “certain topics” were brought up.
Clearly, it’s a tall order to ask a room full of teenagers to feel “comfortable” with topics that have been taboo for generations, and honestly, the awkwardness doesn’t disappear by itself.
But it all seems worth it. While Zoe said the experience was very uncomfortable, she felt that it was okay “because I know how my body works,” and she loves to learn more.
