Questions, questions, questions...

How do you deal with the questions?

I mean, I'm a teacher and every day I am faced with numerous questions.

"How do you do that question?"
"What do you mean factor?"
"Have we taken this before?"
"What does square root mean anyway"
And my favourite questions (usually asked about 5 minutes after the end of a break)
"Can I go to the bathroom?"

I know the answer to those questions.  The answers are usually simple.  They are usually in my answer book if I don't know the answer.  Except of course the last question which ends in me making them do a little dance and then letting them go. :)

But today I was asked a question by a grade 12 student that was out-of-nowhere, and very straightforward...

"Are you pregnant?"

Again, I know the answer to this... it's no.  no no no no no  I wanted to be able to say yes.  I wanted desperately to say YES!  To scream it to the rooftops... YES!  But the answer remains no.  No matter how much I wished it, the answer was still no.

I asked the student why she wanted to know and she said "just wondering".

I brushed it off as a strange happenstance, until four classes later, I'm faced with the grade 7 and 8 class for math.  These little darlings were my favourite class in the first half of the year.  I now dread my time with them - they are hellions to say the least!

In the middle of my lesson, a hand goes up.


"Teacher, why were you away from school yesterday"
doctor's appointment
"Are you feeling ok?"
yes
"What's wrong"
nothing
"Are you pregnant?"

There it is again... staring me in the face... "Are you pregnant?"

Then, another student who wasn't paying attention says "Hey, you were gone yesterday - you have a lot of appointments - are you pregnant?"

*sigh*

No!  No no no no no!!!

How do you answer that question.  I want to just tell them how hard it has been, but that's not appropriate for a teacher-student relationship.  I want to tell them not to take their fertility and future for granted.  But there's no need to scare them.

So I just say no.

I asked where this is coming from.  They all say "Just wondering".  But I know where it is coming from.  The girl who answered the phone the other day and took the message from my doctor's stupid receptionist told all of her friends that I was going for an ultrasound.  All a bunch of teenagers know is that you have an ultrasound when you are pregnant... so there it is.

 The rumour has been started.  The rumour mill has me pregnant.  And despite the fact that it kills me to have to say it....

I'm not.