Classroom Vibes

I was sitting in my office last night and just before I packed up for the day, I spent twenty minutes preparing for my morning lesson. Looking at my lesson plan, students were to prepare answers to a case study and I would facilitate some sort of a discussion and relate it to marketing. No sweat at all. The case study was a new one, and after a good read-through, my jaw dropped a little with the dumbfounded look commonly found in comics that goes with the thought bubble that says ‘what the….’

The case study was about a lady owner of a lingerie shop contemplating to extend her product offering and venture into uncharted waters selling sex toys. Yes, sex toys. Not toys as in plastic items for children’s leisure, but sex toys as in plastic items for adult pleasure; think mobile phone on silent mode.

I had to prepare a lesson plan and facilitate a discussion on how to market sex toys from a consumer behavioural perspective. I will call myself one who is open minded and receptive towards diversity in cultural views, and actually have a supportive stance in regards to social maturity towards sex education. Nevertheless, to manage a discussion with second year students on a topic like this isn’t like running a focus group about takeaway food.

So there I was standing before my class in the most professional stance I could muster in preparation to embark on a journey threatened to end up in utter embarrassment. I was actually more concerned, rather than worried if some students may find the topic somewhat uncomfortable. After all, it is not everyday their tutor strolls into the class and starts the lesson by announcing “G’day class, lets all talk about handcuffs and dildos.”

I asked the students to divorce themselves from personal or cultural opinion towards social desirability, notions of right from wrong, and judgements of sexual undertones, but instead focus on the case study theme from a purely commercial perspective. Yeah right, it is like telling a 3-year old looking at a dancing monkey wearing orange diapers and a zucchini tied to its head not to laugh. But the show must go on.

I actually thought I did well until I stumbled upon the discussion on behavioural sequence model – a framework that addresses issues of who, what, why, where, when of product consumption. I was quite eloquent when raising the questions, but I was just as quick to realise that I should not offer an answer to the questions I raised. As professional as you can be, but really, what do you think will happen if you ask a bunch of teenagers, “now, tell me, what are the various uses of a vibrator?”

I should be paid more for this job.