The Wonder Years

Well i was watching a "The Wonder Years" episode where Coach Cutlip teaches his students about sex education. That got me wondering about the time when we were taught about reproduction and stuff.

It happened in class 8th. I remember the first day in the new session, all the guys were discussing pg 99 of our biology text book. I knew i wasn't alone in skimming thought it during the summer holidays. Well part of the excitement lay in knowing if the girls had also read about the male reproductive system as we had read about the female ones. Of course, till then we were made to sit besides a girl so that each bench had a boy and a girl each. For some reason, this practice was discontinued from that year.

The teacher assigned to us was Mrs Banerjee. A short, bespectacled lady. Very soon we knew that sitting in her class meant keeping absolutely mum and having a straight face. A slight curve or a small noise would make her very angry and she would leave the class without even completing the chapter. We did not want that to happen as we progressed to reach the chapter we all had been waiting for since school began.

In the end it was a bit anti climatic, she taught the chapter as a newsreader trying to finish the broadcast in 30 mins yet covering everything. No one asked any cheeky questions and girls did not giggle among themselves.

We boys however certainly did discuss about the in's and outs of the female form all through that session.

Sometimes, i wonder if the girls too discussed about sex during that year. I think they did, because when the class got over, a girl came over to my friend and asked if she had spelled a word correctly( now i don't recall the word, but i am sure it was related to the male anatomy). As she went towards her friends i could catch a hint of smile on her face. A smile to her friends as if to say look, i did it.

That year there were many first. This was just one of them. It was also the year that i enjoyed the school the most.