Things you can learn by teaching

I teach sex ed. to youth at an alternative high school for about an hour on Wednesdays. It is one of the highlights of my week. The kids are loud and sometimes crude. They don't always want to be engaged but they all seem to understand and respect that my co-teacher and I are there because we want to be. So even when they act out the don't direct it at us.

Yesterday we taught a lesson on relationships. We had them define sex, love and relationships. We asked them to tell us what makes a good friend, romantic partner, life partner etc. Now what suprised me was how the same students who had them most off the wall ideas about what safe sex is and could care less about contraception where able to so eloquently express their thoughts about what makes a good friend, romantic partner, and life partner. I'm telling on myself a little but some of these students could articulate some of these ideas at 17 that I am just realizing at 26. Now I don't think I am some outlier.


I was taken aback by their life experiences. I learned a lot from them. After the lesson, I returned to an ongoing mental discussion about how we all sacrifice things in our life, sometimes to our detrement. Let me explain: the discussion first started about 7 years ago with my shallow observation that girls in community college were hotter than girls in state schools who where more physically attractive than girls at the most prestigious schools, in general. The trend is flipped when you ranked which girls were interesting., in general. I came up with two hypotheses: 1) the community college girls spent more time in HS getting and being cute and spent less time on academics OR 2) in community college there was less academic demand so the girls could focus on being physically attractive. Ok, I know it's shallow but you've read this far! I've matured a little in 7 years.

So similar idea with other areas: I (and many of my collegues) have spent so much time and energy pursuing academics and career goals we missed out/sacrificed opportunities to develop in other areas. It could sports, or learning to cook, getting relationships experience or people skills. Think about the most brilliant people you know. The one who is freakishly good at basketball, science, or business. That person likely had to sacrifice alot. Sometimes those sacrifices are in areas that contribute to physical, spiritual and mental health. Is it okay for society to reward? Is it better to be well balanced and "just good" at somethings or to be "THE BEST" at one particular thing and severly crippled by the sacrifices? Before you answer think about our top scientists who have some of the worst people skills. How many of our most talented and highest paid athletes or the most popular music star would you say were nice or moral people?