D. Jill Savitt
Part One—Essence of Being—Male/Female
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1. What does it mean to be a girl?
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2. What does it mean to be a boy?
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3. What does womanhood mean to you?
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4. What does manhood mean to you?
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5. How does the word “Macho” make you feel?
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6. Who is more important in the world, a man or a women?
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7. Who are better students, girls or boys?
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8. Who works harder, men or women?
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9. Who are more violent? Who cry more?
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10. Are you happy being a ___ ? Would you like to be the opposite sex?
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11. What do you consider masculine behavior? What do you consider feminine behavior?
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12. Mark the following items either masculine or feminine:
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school
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children
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television
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shopping
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doctors
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hairdressers
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math
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plumbers
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factory
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poetry
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flowers
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cars
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jewelry
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photography
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money
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music
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books
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food
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Part Two—Sex
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1. Is sex before marriage bad for a boy? Why/Why not?
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2. Is sex before marriage bad for a girl? Why/Why not?
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3. At what age should a boy begin to have sexual experiences?
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4. When should a girl’s sexual experiences begin?
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5. What should one do instead of sex?
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6. Is sex for having children, pleasure, to get close to someone, or all three?
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7. Is sex more important for the man? the woman? neither?
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8. Are there times when one shouldn’t have sex? When?
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9. What should parents tell their daughters about sex? When?
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10. What should boys be taught about sex, and from whom?
Part Three—Courting—Pre-nuptials
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1. At what age should a girl become engaged?
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2. What age difference should exist between a boy and a girl who are engaged? Who should be older?
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3. How long should a couple date before becoming engaged?
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4. Should an unengaged couple be allowed to go out alone together?
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5. Should an engaged couple be allowed to be alone? Why not?
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6. How long should the engagement be?
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7. If the engagement is broken off, how soon should he begin dating someone new? She?
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8. Does it look bad to go out with more than one girl? Boy?
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9. Should the engaged couple do a lot of kissing? Petting? Have sexual relations?
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10. What does “bad girl” mean to you? “Good girl?”
Questionnaire—Marriage Expectations/Children
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1. A good husband should ___.
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2. A good wife should ___.
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3. I expect my husband to ___ .
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4. I expect my wife to ___.
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5. (F) If I want to work outside the home my husband probably will
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6. I want children? Lots Yes/No.
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7. How many children would you like? ___.
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8. How will we prevent ourselves from having too many?
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9. Whose responsibility is the birth control? Why?
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10. Children are solely the women’s responsibility. Yes/No
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11. Men who do dishes and cook are ___ .
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12. A woman’s jobs include ___ .
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13. A man’s jobs include ___ .
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14. I most want a boy/girl child if I can only have one. Why?
The following adolescent novels have been read and “dissected” according to their usefulness to class discussions of sex role identity, family life, sexuality and adolescent issues in general. Bibliographic information is provided at the end of this part of the unit.
A House for Jonnie O.
by Blossom Effman was picked initially for its provocative cover (a very pregnant teen sitting alone in an empty room looking out the window). I soon found it on a list of role free readings. It deals with a school for pregnant girls, where the girls care a lot for each other. Jonnie’s set of problems seem to stem from an absent father and a very strained relationship with her mother. The father of the child is pictured as a lonely wanderer who also needs someone to love. The girls from the school are searching for a home to raise their children in and to get away from their parents. What I found negative, but perhaps truthful, was the girls’ attitude towards their teachers and school. The teachers, who were caring in nature, seemed to be mocked by the girls for their lack of understanding. But, within the general context of teenage rebellion, it all fit together. Many fatherless homes were depicted. Also, the book offers girls of all ethnic backgrounds.
Jonnie O.
could very easily be used to foster, most particularly, a discussion of options; abortion, keeping a child or giving it up for adoption. Abortion was not really gone into deeply, but the other two options were heavily discussed.
What Do You Do in Quicksand?
by Lois Ruby provides a curious twist to the teenage pregnancy problem. The father has decided to raise the child. He is shown as a real and caring father who doesn’t neglect to let us know what hard work is required to raise a child. His family is very supportive as he manages to juggle school, baby and home. What causes all the intrigue is a neighbor girl with many emotional problems who becomes fixated with his baby and with the idea that she should raise the child. In the end, the teenage father goes off to raise the child himself. Some parts of the book are unrealistic, but it does provide a great opportunity to discuss the job of the teenage father.
Lauren
, by Harriett Luger, is a sad tale of a white middle-class girl who gets pregnant and runs off and attempts to live on her own. What evolves is an unsavory situation where she shares a place with two other teenage mothers, all done to show her how difficult it would be to live on her own. In the middle of all this she meets a childless couple who befriend her, and she makes the discovery that they should rightly have her baby. A bit dramatic and contrived to once again discuss options where giving up the child seems the goal.
Jeanette Eyerly has two books,
A Girl Like Me
and
He’s My Baby
Now
which can easily be used in the classroom.
A Girl Like Me
paints a healthy relationship between an adopted daughter and her very educated parents and how this relationship with her adoptive parents eases her friendship with a teenage pregnant girl. The protagonist deals with her own search for her biological mother, and the implications it has on her pregnant friend’s decision to keep or give up her child.
He’s My Baby Now
shows a teenage boy’s reactions to learning that he has been the biological father to a newborn. He schemes his way into the hospital and into the baby’s life. What I felt was stereotypical and unrealistic was his fantasy of having the baby for “his own” while his newly re-married mother or grandmother actually cared for the baby. He never considered himself a likely candidate for the nurturing role. Also, his escapades, including kidnapping the child, were unhealthy and unrealistic. I do think that the action, and his foolhardy antics, would provide real material for discussing the role of the father. He doesn’t want the child given up for adoption, but he wants everyone else to care for the child.
A couple of cute adolescent books that deal with the inner feelings of pre-pubertal kids are
The Cat Ate My Gymsuit
by Paula Danziger and
Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret
by Judy Blume. Neither deals with pregnancy, but both deal with those insecurities so prevalent in the pre-teen groups.
The Cat Ate My Gymsuit
explores the feelings of a fat girl and her insecurities relative to her body. It also deals with a group of students who fight for their liberal teacher. It shows very positive relationships between boys and girls of junior high age. Judy Blume’s book deals with a young girl who moves into a suburban setting and among other things a) waits for her period, and b) tries to decide on a religion. A lot of kookiness is portrayed in her grandmother’s role, but it is a welcome reading. The confusion she feels about her religion parallels the confusion most adolescents feel about themselves.
I Know You, Al
by Constance Greene is another book in this mode. A young girl whose mother is contemplating re-marriage (a very prevalent theme in adolescent novels), also anxiously awaits her period as a sign that she is growing up and normal. All of these books offer easy reading that deals with very important issues facing our adolescents: periods, acne, bras, and a general heightened sense of sex and self.
A very different book from all of these white middle class teenage books is Julius Horotitz’s
The Diary of A.N.
This is an extremely sensitive and moving account of a black girl’s life in the ghetto of poverty. Everyone around her is doing drugs or getting pregnant to get their own welfare case. She is into school, reading and going to college, but very realistically, always within the framework of her life in one room. A very adult book in some ways, it offers one of the few books designed at saying, there is an alternative to getting pregnant. This book should be read and re-read and used to advocate reading and writing of these very private thoughts. The style is painfully beautiful and could serve as a model for the students who might wish to keep a diary. A diary would in turn give the teacher a chance to see what really goes on in some of our students’ homes and heads.
Rubyfruit Jungle
by Rita Mae Brown is a brilliant description of a young girl’s homosexual beginnings. This book could be used if the teacher goes into homosexuality, but might also prove interesting as role free reading. It deals with the loneliness and isolation that the young woman suffered at times, but it also shows her very normal (and heterosexual) high school years.
For other role free reading, I have provided here a booklist prepared by library services of Chicago. As one will note, some of the books are described above. For a complete annotated list write to:. Young Adult Services Division, American Library Association, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, Ill. 60611, or contact me.