We have fielded so many questions regarding the content of our ‘Growing Up’ production, mostly in relation to how the subject of Puberty is covered within the play. We have subsequently decided to publish the section and let you view it for yourself, to ascertain its suitability.
If you do have any questions surrounding these issues, please do get in touch with us immediately 01483 306899.
“On Tuesday this week, my last EVER week at this school, we had a day called ‘going through changes.’ I can remember so much from the day because we didn’t have to wear school uniform and the teachers let us eat our lunch in the classrooms, so that was cool.
The whole day was about the fact that our bodies now were, or are going to go through loads of different changes and that all of this is because of one word… Puberty.
Mrs O’Brien said ‘We are going to talk today about going through puberty.’
At first I didn’t know what she was going on about. I thought it must be a big tunnel on a motorway in France or something… (Impersonates Dad) ‘Time to turn the headlights of the car on Michael, we’re going through puberty.’ As it turns out, it is a bit of a tunnel. Or at least, it can feel like you’re going through one at the time.
As I’m sure you know, what puberty actually means is that your body grows faster than any other time in your life, except when you were a tiny baby. The brilliant thing is, is that everyone goes through it – whether you prefer apple pie or chocolate cake, whether you like apples or oranges, whether you prefer CBBC or CITV – puberty is coming your way! The bad news is that everybody goes through it at completely different times.
Mrs O’Brien said that it could happen anywhere between 8 and 13 in girls. Boys go through it later between 10 and 15. I was starting to worry why everyone in the class looked taller than me. I thought I was really weird. And short. Look at me now. Do you want to know something else that was weird? Martin Smith’s feet. I remember saying, when we were getting changed for PE one day, “Martin, your feet look so weird…” Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t get close enough to smell them or anything, but he is quite a short person and his feet looked so massive. Apparently that was all to do with puberty too, parts of your body can grow quicker than others, and I got told off for pointing this out to the whole class who were now all standing around his feet, prodding his toes and shouting ‘Urgh…Martin is a big foot.’
They made us learn this rhyme in the morning about what happens when the body is ready to start puberty… Wonder if I can remember it…
(remembering)
“There is a little gland that’s in my brain,
It is in the shape of a pea.
It releases hormones again and again.
And it’s called pi-tu-i-ta-ry.”
I’ll call it out and you say it back to me…
There is a little gland that’s in my brain,
There is a little gland that’s in my brain
It is in the shape of a pea.
It is in the shape of a pea.
It releases hormones again and again,
It releases hormones again and again,
And it’s called pi-tu-i-ta-ry.
And it’s called pi-tu-i-ta-ry.”
The pituitary gland. Mrs O’Brien said that for boys, the hormones from this pituitary gland travel to the testes, those are the two egg shaped things underneath the boys equipment. There it starts making something called testosterone and sperm. When Mrs O’Brien said the word testosterone, Ross suddenly leaped up from his chair…
‘Oh, not a test already, we’ve only just started…’
‘Testosterone Ross’ Mrs O’Brien said ‘It’s what’s produced in a boy’s testes when puberty starts, along with sperm, which he will need one day if he wants to be the Father of a baby.’
For girls, the hormones from the pituitary gland go to the ovaries, which contain eggs that have been in the girls’ body since she was born. I never knew that, these eggs had been there all that time. I had these visions of all of the girls in my class wobbling around with loads of eggs inside them. Then Mrs O’Brien told me off again and said that these eggs were even tinier than a full stop. The ovaries start making another hormone called estrogen. Together, these hormones prepare a girl’s body to start her periods and be able to become a Mother of a baby one day.
One of the main things that we were told about was how our mood might change throughout all of this puberty stuff. Everyone kept asking ‘why this thing called puberty could make you angry?’ ‘Why would it make you upset easily?’ None of us could quite understand when our bodies hadn’t made us feel like that before. It was all part of this hormone thing and was all to do with growing up and getting older. I started to realise why Sarah and a load of her friends started crying so easily these days. The smallest thing would set them off. They’d be in floods of tears, I remember saying,
‘Why are you crying?’
(As Sarah, through tears.) ‘I don’t know.’
Mrs O’Brien then said ‘during this time, you start growing hair under your arms and in your pubic areas and boys will start to grow hair on your faces too.’ At that very same time, Mr Vewybald walked through the door. Mr Vewybald was a lovely man but he had hair EVERYWHERE. He had hair all over his arms, a big bushy beard across his face (and sometimes at lunchtime if he ate his food quickly in the hall, he’d get bits of bread stuck in it). The only place that he didn’t have hair was on his head. Not a single bit of hair was there and his head reflected the lights around the room in class right into your eyes so much that, sometimes you had to look away.
Sarah put her hand up looking worried.
‘What is it Sarah?’ Mrs O’Brien asked.
‘We don’t lose the hair on our head do we, when puberty starts?’
Mrs O’Brien laughed and said that perhaps Mr V should answer that one…
‘No, I didn’t start losing the hair on my head until much later, you can rest assured that it won’t happen for a good few years yet…and it usually happens to men.’
He was laughing, until Ross shouted out…
‘Mr Vewybald is very bald.’
Everyone in the class laughed and Ross was sent out. He wasn’t allowed to take part in the rest of the day and had to write a letter saying sorry to Mrs O’Brien and Mr Vewybald. His Mum and Dad were told about it too.
At break time that day, I remember feeling really stupid and weird because other people had started changing and I hadn’t yet. I felt really on my own. I sat down and Sarah came and sat next to me.
‘Are you alright Michael?’
‘Yes, I think so. I’m a bit…oh it’s nothing.’
‘Go on Michael, we’re friends, we tell each other stuff.’
‘I’m a bit worried, Martin has got massive feet and his voice is already starting to get a bit deeper and David’s got so tall in this year and I’ve just stayed the same.’
‘I’m worried too Michael.’
‘What have you got to worry about? It happens earlier for girls.’
‘I’m worried about when I have my first period.’
I had to tell her that I didn’t really know what it meant. I remember loads of girls talking about it at school but never being really sure what actually happened. She told me that once a month, a girl had a monthly cycle where blood is released through her you-know-what.
‘Are you going to be alright? You hate blood.’
‘Yes of course I am’ she said ‘It happens to all girls. Mrs O’Brien said that it’s normal and it just is a signal that our body is growing up and preparing for us to carry babies one day in the future.
In the afternoon, we were told that all of us would have a growth spurt, which I already knew some people in the class had already started. It was going to last two to three years and apparently, it can constantly feel like the sleeves of your shirt are getting shorter and your trousers are creeping up your legs. I remember thinking, imagine if that all happened in one day… What would you do? Suddenly, NONE of your clothes would fit you anymore. You’d get out of bed, try to put your trousers on...”
There is a short routine, where Michael demonstrates waking up and then trying to force imaginary trousers on that no longer fit, he subsequently falls to the floor in anger.