My Experience as a Professor’s Assistant for a Human Sexuality Course

When I was a senior in college I had the opportunity to assist a professor in a popular, yet controversial Human Sexuality course. I took the course as a junior, did well, and when given the option to return as an assistant for the class I went for it. I not only did this one semester, I did it for three! This experience was many things: character building, fascinating, thought provoking, life changing and fun!

ABOUT THE COURSE
On campus, it was known that the Human Sexuality course in the Education Department was controversial, one that most parents would cringe at their children taking. This only increased its popularity, and on registration day the course would be filled rather quickly with over 100 students. The course was not just about genitals and biology, instead it covered an array of tops like: gender identity, feminism, sexual behavior, promiscuity, sexual violence, STDs, LGBT issues, gender roles and the overall psychological and sociological place human sexuality takes in our everyday lives. The main lecture was lead by the professor for an hour followed by a required small group discussion broken down into 25 students - I was the leader for one of these groups.

WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO?
After I made this decision I was immediately nervous as I would be leading a discussion with 25 of my peers and grading their papers about subjects that most people have a hard time talking about. I knew the course well and wondered how I would make it through some of the topics being that there were as many men as women in the class. The demographics were all over the place - college athletes, geeks, preppies, frat boys, sorority girls, independents, and serious academics. I was ready to take on this challenge as I knew it would be good both educationally and personally.

MY FIRST CLASS
Nervous is not the word, there is no word to describe this. I entered my private discussion room before anyone else, set up my itinerary on my desk in the front, found my chalk and waited for the students to arrive. Typing this process right now brings back all of the feelings of that moment…intense. The students trickled in and took their seats at which time I introduced my self and took a silent deep breath. The topic from the main lecture prior to discussion was sexual violence. In that lecture we learned that sexual violence happens to both sexes There is no doubt in a class of 100 that a few had experienced some sort of sexual violence due to statistics. I looked around and everyone was looking at me, quietly, patiently and openly. I asked my first question, “Does anyone want to share further thoughts about what we have learned in the lecture?.” A female student in the back raised her hand and began sharing a personal story… icebreaker! The discussion for the next half hour was lively and most participated to a degree. I told them I would need their first paper in my hand by the end of next discussion and that was it. They all left, I took a deep breath, and knew that I could do this with ease.

GRADING PAPERS
This was my first experience of being responsible for the outcome of someone’s grade. There were 6 papers for the course that were graded by the assistants and the Professor gave the final grade based on attendance, lecture participation, and the papers. I had a few days to grade the papers as well as work on my own courses for my degree. The professor put his trust in me that I would be fair and accurate. Most of the students performed well and put a lot of thought into their papers. I only had to give one D - he was terribly concerned about this and wrote good papers the rest of the course.

MOST ENTERTAINING LECTURES AND DISCUSSIONS
Number of Sexual Partners
The lecture that got the most giggles, flushing, whispering, and hidden writing was when the professor asked everyone to write down on a piece of paper how many people they had sex with and pass it to the front, anonymously of course. There was so much fidgeting and counting going on until all papers made it to the front. He began reading the numbers and it went from 0-100. It was great because it gave everyone a moment to be completely honest without anyone knowing their coveted number. This developed into a great discussion about the double standard that exist when it comes to the number of sexual partners men have compared to women.

Transgendered Discussion Panel
The other highlight would definitely be the Transgendered panel. Being that this was 20 years ago this was a big deal. The professor arranged a panel of 8 people that were either transgendered, cross dressers, or in the process of gender transformation. They shared their trials and tribulations of their lifestyle with the room and students could ask questions. You could look around the room and clearly see that many students were struggling with their comfort level. By the end of the hour the entire room had been enlightened, exposed to something new, and possibly let go of pre-judgements.

SUMMARY
The best part of this experience was to see how open students of all demographics became to their own sexuality and the sexuality of others. You could not leave that course being closed minded, everyone was forever changed. Some couldn’t handle it and dropped out but their loss. What did I learn? So much! I learned how to feel comfortable speaking in front of crowds about any kind of subject. Most importantly I learned that we are all in this together as humans - men and women both have struggles in the realm of human sexuality and we must break down barriers that separate us in order to understand each other better.

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