With my extra library time I had the chance to really explore the
selections that were available to the elementary school kids. I found
the National geographic on a rack behind the librarians desk in the
'ask for it' section and by this time the librarian had given me free
reign of the place so I popped back and perused what looked like
boring magazines just to see what was up. It was awesome they had
animal pictures and adventure pictures and everything a ten year old
boy could want. More than a ten year old boy could want as it
happened. Not in the first but in the second copy I was picture
reading I turned the page and boom, naked Africans. There were
breasts and penises just hanging out in the breeze for the whole
world to see. I was shocked and embarrassed and I quickly closed the
magazine. I thought for sure that the librarian had seen me looking
at the naked pictures in the magazine and that I was going to be in
trouble because I had not specifically asked to read the National
Geographic and I thought I may be in big trouble. I was nervous but I
did want to make sure I saw what I saw so I nonchalantly snuck the
magazine over to a table that was in the corner and took a stack of
books over with me for cover. I opened it up to a innocent page and
then kept a finger over in the naked section so if approached I could
flip back quickly and act all casual and throw whoever it was off the
trail. Well, I was not to good at keeping secrets so the next day
when we had class library time I let slip to a classmate that if e
were to go and get the National Geographic I could show him some
nakedness. He went up and retrieved the smut and brought it over to a
group of about six boys who all thought that it was hilarious that
there were naked people in a magazine in the school library. One of
the boys decided to share our find shocking some girls which it did
and they were disgusted which was awesome so we moved as a heard
sowing each table the pictures and watching them react. One of the
girls was so offended that she ran and told the teacher that the boys
had a magazine with naked women in it and we were showing it to every
one. That got her attention and we were quickly rounded up. She asked
about the magazine and when we showed her it was a National
Geographic she got really upset. She called the class togeather into
the classroom and we had a long talk about how the people in the
pictures were from another place that had a different culture and it
was not dirty or funny that they didn't have any clothes on. I was
dreading that she would have somehow figured out that I was the
instigator and singled me out for punishment or public naming and
shamming but she didn't and that was good enough for me. The next day
the principal came in to talk to us about being mature about library
materials and once again told us there was nothing funny or wrong
about naked Africans in National Geographic. He was wrong, there had
been something funny about it but now there was definitely not.
