In Part 1, we told you about Mrs. West and the young man who thanked her for CPR’s message about pornography. Later in the school year, the same Mrs. West had another encounter with a group of young men while approaching the same topic.
It was CPR week for a group of 6th-grade boys who knew perhaps a little too much about sex already. Even though these young men made many comments throughout her instruction, Mrs. West* continued through her lessons and eventually got to talking about pornography. Here, things began to take a different turn.
“Because of the openness of our curriculum and the ability to talk about real issues, many of them confessed to not only having looked at pornography before but to viewing it REGULARLY.” -Mrs. West
Following these confessions, Mrs. West mentioned a celebrity who had admitted that his marriage ended partly because of his addiction to pornography.
“How did it kill his marriage?”
“All he did was look at some pictures!”
“He shouldn’t have gotten caught!”
These were just a few of the reactions the young men had. Mrs. West refused to minimize the real consequences of pornography, though. She told the boys that viewing inappropriate images doesn’t end when the images are no longer in front of them. The longer people stare at an image, the more likely that image will become burned into the viewer’s memory, making it very difficult to forget. Though this celebrity tried to forget them, those images affected the emotional and physical intimacy with his wife.
Mrs. West thought the boys seemed engaged in this conversation but there wasn’t any way of knowing. Well, not until the end of the week when the anonymous comments about the class came in, that is.
“I always thought pornography didn’t hurt anyone. Now I know it can hurt me.”
“I’m going to share what that celebrity said with my dad.”
We’re thankful these young men heard our message. We can only hope their future relationships will benefit from what Mrs. West told them that day.
Ignorance is not bliss—relationship education matters! Make a difference by donating today!
*The instructor’s name has been changed to protect the identity of all involved.
