A friend recently asked me if teaching sexuality education was my dream job. Indeed, it is. I feel I am able to offer students critical, life-saving information and support that is rare and so particularly important. I feel very blessed to have this opportunity to make a real difference, to offer real acceptance where it is lacking, and to be present as a mentor as young people fumble towards sexual maturity and health.
The majority of my current classes are with college students. I currently have 75 Human Sexuality students at Austin Community College. Soon I will have another 25 or so through the University of Maryland (these students I will be teaching online).
I am gratified to have the work, and many of my college students give my classes high praise and have told me how much they have grown and changed because of them. It is easy to be lulled into a great sense of accomplishment.
But this is not my dream job.
I will be starting a middle school class on Friday. I will have the distinction of meeting with ten or eleven youth once a week for a few hours to hash out sexual issues. At the end of it, I expect the youth will say they had a great time and continue on their way. They will be unlikely to consider it life-changing.
This is truly my dream job.
I don’t want to change young people’s lives, I want to talk with them and support them before their lives need to be changed.
“I don’t want to change young people’s lives, I want to talk with them and support them before their lives need to be changed.”
Brilliant!
For the record, I had exactly the same response as Alice to exactly the same words as she did.