Elliott’s journey through puberty

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Wet dreams and erections

Student	Elliott	Date	24 June 2008
Topic	Health education	Observer	Meegan (teacher)

Today, we discussed how to be healthy during puberty. I realised from our last lesson that the students hadn’t picked up all that they needed from the girl/boy changes during puberty. I was showing some picture flash cards from the Family Planning Association resource. I showed a picture of an erect penis. Elliott put his hand up and said that his was like that in the mornings and wanted to know why that was. I explained that it was because of hormones and that most teenage boys have erections in the morning and at other times of the day and night.

Some of the boys expressed that they had erections in the morning. Elliott asked why this was and what the stuff that comes out of his penis was. This started a long discussion about erections, sperm, semen, and ejaculation.

I said to Elliott that teenagers may have what is called a “wet dream”. He asked whether that meant he wet the bed. I explained that it wasn’t urine/pee. But that it was when semen/creamy-coloured liquid came out of a boy’s penis. This prompted a long discussion and Elliott asked whether he should tell anyone about it. I emphasised the importance of cleaning up after himself and keeping clean. I said that if he felt comfortable telling his caregiver about that he could, but in a quiet time when nobody else was around. He was satisfied with my explanation. Elliott asked if this was the stuff that made babies. “Yes”, I replied and we referred back to the pictures of how that happened.

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