Everybody knows kids say the darnest things but what about teenagers? The following is a message I sent my family about this time last year when I was still teaching in the Salt Lake City area.
I'm starting a unit about heroes. Usually the first thing 12 year-olds think of are virile men in spandex or women in super duper push up bras. For that reason, I make them create their own superheroes at the very beginning to get the nonsense out of their systems.
This year, things went a little differently than I envisioned. Typically, the super powers the endow their characters with are the standard super strength, telepathy, or invisibility. I hadn't bargained on Chase, a child with a differently-abled imagination. The conversation went something like this:
Me: That looks nice. What powers does he have?
Chase: He fights unwanted pregnacy and AIDS.
Me: What??
Chase: He's Super Contraceptive Man - making the world safe for truth, justice, and the Planned Parenthood way.
Me: Chase, not okay. That's definitely not appropriate. You can't have a superhero whose power is birth control.
Chase: Well, what if that isn't his main power? What if he stops unplanned pregnancies as a hobby?
Me: No. Still not appropriate.
Chase: But his rubber costume was going to be so cool...
Me: Change it.
Chase: Man...
One of the many things they definitely don't tell you about in your teaching classes in college.
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