What Should We Teach?

I am becoming obsessed with all that is Eve Ensler. Working with and through her words, in The Vagina Monologues, was a powerful and opening experience. She slams readers and audiences with a dose of reality, one that we so often overlook or forget: the reality of women. I love her bravery and brazenness. I love her humor and her humanity. I love that she continues to create works and do work that defies ignorance or apathy.

This is the kind of plugged-in I want to be.

I've begun introducing my drama class to her newest work, I Am An Emotional Creature, which brings to life the wide variety but also the unity present in girls' experiences across the globe. I started with confidence, but now it is beginning to waver. Can I really work with girls in a public high school on a piece that talks openly about sex, about abuse, about teen pregnancy, about sex slavery, about about about??? Can I get away with this? Will a parent complain? Will I make one of the girls uncomfortable? Wouldn't it be easier to use material that doesn't hit this close to home? Shouldn't I stop now, before it's too late?

But how could I stop? Now that I've heard one girl call the work "empowering." An another girl came in yesterday saying, "Ms. G! I saw a boy crying today and thought of this class. We are emotional creatures, and you don't normally see that!" Others have openly said that some of the words and ideas are "awkward" and "surprising," but they also say that it's "deep" and "they will really remember these lessons and experiences."

I've been as clear about my position as possible: I want to open a discussion about real and current issues affecting girls all over the world; I want to do this so that each of us can become more in-tune with our selves, our bodies, our decisions; I want to give them the opportunity, in a safe space, to define and strengthen who they are, something that has taken me a long time to do. I want to give them fair warning, a heads-up--you will have some difficult decisions and experiences ahead of you, but you are beautiful and unique and it is you, ONLY YOU, who can do what is right for your self.

I want them to know that if they are uncomfortable in any way, they can come talk to me. If we, as a group, decide there are some pieces we do not want to address, that is OKAY. I'm trying to give everyone the option of participating as much or as little as they need, so they can receive as much or as little of this message as they need or can handle at this time.

Is this wrong? Should we avoid sensitive material because it is too difficult, because it is too scary? And if so, what good are we doing?