Class Introduction
Demo #1: Cartoon of Fish
Draw 2 fish in a goldfish bowl. One fish announces one day that he’s had it with the bowl and that he’s going to go out there and experience life! (act this out loudly and dramatically). Some kids giggle…they know what’s coming! Of course, in the next picture, the fish is dead on the table with the bowl fish looking on.
Ask if they ever feel like that jumping fish—if they feel their parents are keeping them trapped in a fish bowl. Explain that most parents truly care about them and are trying to protect them until they are old enough and self-sufficient enough to go out on their own. Parents are not really sadists!
Many parents may not know how to explain this very well, and may even get angry and say, "Because I said so!" Ask the students to try to be patient with their parents, and encourage them to initiate conversations with parents about relationships, marriage, life, and sex; to offer their parents the brochures they take home, etc. in order to get them to talk. Teens need help in talking with parents because they really deeply desire to have meaningful conversations with their parents.
For those of you who are not artists, here is the actual cartoon:
