“Ma’am, Are You A Virgin”?

I’m an idealist; I want to be a teacher. That too, for little children, so that I can make a difference to as yet “uncorrupted” minds. Imagine my horror then at hearing an old friend (now a teacher) telling me that one little boy in her class raised his hand and asked her; “Ma’am, are you a virgin”.

This question has a hundred throwbacks, ranging from the importance of virginity in our society today to what our children are thinking about today! My baby brother (barely a teenager), watches Desperate Housewives with the air of one who has ‘been there and seen that’. In an innocent conversation during on e of the ads (I’m a Desperate Housewives Virgin), we began talking about the few minutes I had caught, where the son sued the mother for slapping him. My brother said that he and his compatriots agreed that it was too ‘liberal’ but Singapore should change; after all, the mother was sleeping around!

Where did this ‘blame generation’ spring from? Where did this generation of children get these thoughts from? I’m not all that old, still in the same generation really! After all this time and money spent on top schools, expensive vacations, computers, games, mobile phones and clothes, is it time to weigh the benefits that we are really getting?

While children are thinking out of the box, are they losing the essence of being ‘children’? Play grounds and bicycles have surrendered to Gameboys and Playstations. As mentioned above, Desperate Housewives has replaced Captain Planet and the Mickey Mouse Show is history.

From an idealist, I am becoming a questioner; I want to know if the benefits of these ‘newfangled’ pastimes are truly beneficial. I am 22 and have begun to realize that I will probably have children in the next 5 years and am thinking about what I want them to be like. The one thing flashing in my head is that I certainly don’t want my son’s teacher to be subjected to the question my friend was. I cannot ban him from the internet or articles which talk about sex; but I can pray that he’ll come to me with his questions and I want to make myself available for that.

Is that what kids today are missing - The chance to clear things with their parents? My friend later told me that another boy had later asked her what virgin meant, he had not known, but had participated in the laughter just the same. While the caretakers parents provide for their children are often the best they can get, there seems to be a lack somewhere. These (often) foreign domestics are not on the same level as parents and being young, are more interested in chatting about fashion and friends than teaching values and explaining things. Perhaps children are unwittingly picking up these topics of conversation and certain ‘interesting’ words and phrases and subjecting their teachers to them!

There could be a hundred more explanations but this is a likely one; especially as the boy involved was brought up by a domestic worker because his parents were away. He spent his time on the computer and television, had a girlfriend (even I feel left out, single at 22), and was living the life of a 22 year old before turning into a teenager even!
Is this what money has brought us- Children old before their time?