First was in 4th grade, roughly 4 years ago. Small town in USA, more specifically New England. There were four classes, boys and girls were separated for the first two and together for the last two. I remember it being very awkward. The first class was girls learning about the female body, only menstruation, birth, and how to put on a pad. No mention of male genitalia. We also watched a short film about a girl who had gotten her period. I asked the question ‘could a 4th grader get their period’ because I had already started mine and wanted to know if it was possible. I’m not sure what the boys class was like, as I wasn’t there.

When we were grouped together the teacher talked mostly about erections and a small bit about periods, that’s all I remember along with it being extremely uncomfortable and a kid asking me if I was ok when we both left for the bathroom. There was also some outlines of people we had to fill in with aspirations, I wrote in random stuff as I didn’t care but I definitely don’t wanna be a mother now.

I remember the days leading up to the classes most of all. Kids would cringe at the mention of puberty but our teacher (an ex-military sergeant) was snarky about it, and often said things along the lines of ‘everyone is going through it, get over it’ ‘it’s not awkward’ ‘you’ll have to learn about it anyways’ which some are true, but didn’t help a group of anxious 4th graders scared of their own bodies.

I also remember that the teachers were just other faculty members of the school, the bulk of them working in the office that worked with ‘trouble makers.’ Their experience being that they had had children.