Eggsperiment
Today, I brought a hardboiled egg with me to work. When I went to get it from the fridge, it had one single impact point on it, which had cracked in a circular fashion.
For some reason, this reminded me of a task we did in 10th grade health class. All of students were paired into heterosexual couple partnerships (I now wonder which of my classmates felt judged or different because of that) and given an egg. Not hardboiled, though. A raw egg. (This likely sounds familiar to many of you, as I think it's a pretty well practiced health class lesson in the USA.) Each couple was told that they were the "parents" of this egg, and needed to protect it for one week. If the egg broke, both members of the partnership failed the assignment.
Each team was to set up an elaborate schedule of which partner would take care of the egg during which hours. Who took it home at night, who brought it to gym class, when the handoff would occur, and in which hallway. Perhaps, to an adult, this seems like a good way to teach responsibility to a teenager during the sex education portion of health class. Looking back, I see some flaws.
Flaw #1: First, I didn't choose this partner as I would choose someone with whom I would be caring for a baby. I don't remember who my partner was, but I remember being dismayed when his name was read off. Also, it's incredibly awkward as a 15 year old to be put into a partnership with a boy in your class. A lot of "ooooo"s and "ooohhhhh"s were heard during the assigning. And, at 15, I was not one of the girls that the boys were secretly crossing their fingers about, and I was painfully aware.
Flaw #2: Most of the boys in the class were either 14 or 15 years old. Seriously, make a schedule of who takes care of a raw egg that we're pretending is a baby? That sounds like a sissy game of playing house, to me. The boys were much more interested in the making of the egg baby than the possibility of caring for it. I have to imagine that the lesson was totally lost on most, if not all, of them. And, I have to imagine, on some of the girls, as well, as proven by the fact that several of them ended up going to a continuation school due to "unfortunate circumstances".
Flaw #3: The assignment, perhaps because of the teenage boys' involvement, really became "who can design the most impact proof encasement for the egg". This, in turn, led to competitions after lunch where the boys (generally unannounced to the girl in the partnership) would take the eggs out to the back stairwell at the school (the highest spot possible from which to test an egg's "impact proof" container) and drop the styrofoam or bubble wrap or cardboard container containing the hapless egg... usually to its certain demise. And, therefore, failing both themselves and their blissfully unaware partners.
This last one I only know about because my partner, What's His Name, did exactly that.
And, I find myself, 20 years after 10th grade health class, thanking my lucky stars that I did not marry that boy... mostly because he's probably working at McDonald's because goodness knows, he made a sucky engineer.
For some reason, this reminded me of a task we did in 10th grade health class. All of students were paired into heterosexual couple partnerships (I now wonder which of my classmates felt judged or different because of that) and given an egg. Not hardboiled, though. A raw egg. (This likely sounds familiar to many of you, as I think it's a pretty well practiced health class lesson in the USA.) Each couple was told that they were the "parents" of this egg, and needed to protect it for one week. If the egg broke, both members of the partnership failed the assignment.
Each team was to set up an elaborate schedule of which partner would take care of the egg during which hours. Who took it home at night, who brought it to gym class, when the handoff would occur, and in which hallway. Perhaps, to an adult, this seems like a good way to teach responsibility to a teenager during the sex education portion of health class. Looking back, I see some flaws.
Flaw #1: First, I didn't choose this partner as I would choose someone with whom I would be caring for a baby. I don't remember who my partner was, but I remember being dismayed when his name was read off. Also, it's incredibly awkward as a 15 year old to be put into a partnership with a boy in your class. A lot of "ooooo"s and "ooohhhhh"s were heard during the assigning. And, at 15, I was not one of the girls that the boys were secretly crossing their fingers about, and I was painfully aware.
Flaw #2: Most of the boys in the class were either 14 or 15 years old. Seriously, make a schedule of who takes care of a raw egg that we're pretending is a baby? That sounds like a sissy game of playing house, to me. The boys were much more interested in the making of the egg baby than the possibility of caring for it. I have to imagine that the lesson was totally lost on most, if not all, of them. And, I have to imagine, on some of the girls, as well, as proven by the fact that several of them ended up going to a continuation school due to "unfortunate circumstances".
Flaw #3: The assignment, perhaps because of the teenage boys' involvement, really became "who can design the most impact proof encasement for the egg". This, in turn, led to competitions after lunch where the boys (generally unannounced to the girl in the partnership) would take the eggs out to the back stairwell at the school (the highest spot possible from which to test an egg's "impact proof" container) and drop the styrofoam or bubble wrap or cardboard container containing the hapless egg... usually to its certain demise. And, therefore, failing both themselves and their blissfully unaware partners.
This last one I only know about because my partner, What's His Name, did exactly that.
And, I find myself, 20 years after 10th grade health class, thanking my lucky stars that I did not marry that boy... mostly because he's probably working at McDonald's because goodness knows, he made a sucky engineer.
posted by Bert at 4:54 PM
3 Comments:
I would argue that the same flaws you point out made it a good lesson indeed -- if only just for the girls. What's it like to be stuck in a partnership with an immature, irresponsible 14 or 15-yo boy? What's it like to be unwillingly connected to someone you barely know? Someone who may not accept the new resonsibility, while you have little choice in the matter?
That is a fair point. I suppose, some girls got it, and the others (who ended up in continuation school due to their "unfortunate circumstance"), apparently, did not. And some of us... well, we were just the lucky ones.
Our version of that lesson came in 7th or 8th grade but someone, at some point, must have pondered those same flaws. All of us were doomed to be single parents. A few unlucky ones had twins. Everyone had to buy a 5 lb (or 2 3 lb) bags of flour and treat them as our babies. Not as easily breakable but a whole lot heavier. Everyone was a potential kidnapper for if you left your sack of flour unattended, it could be taken and turned in to the teacher for a 5 point penalty. I think the lesson may have worked because I don't recall any mysterious departures in high school.
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