I spent most of Fall Break eating delicious food, preparing for Christmas festivities and sleeping on my couch. I originally didn’t do anything valuable. That is, until I entered a seventh grade classroom.

I remain in touch with my high school guidance counselor, who is now an assistant principal at a local middle school. She asked me if I was interested in visiting during my weeklong vacation to talk to a group of 13-year-olds about feminism.

Anyone who knows something about 13-year-olds and about feminism can relate to my initial feelings of hesitation. Middle school consists of some tough years: bullying, worries about balancing schoolwork and being cool, and, of course, puberty.

I couldn’t help but question how I was supposed to address some of the world’s biggest issues with a group of young strangers, especially without any experience leading adolescents. Could I actually hold an extensive dialogue about breaking down gender barriers with a bunch of middle schoolers?

My intention was to teach the students a little something about feminism, women’s rights and equality. But in true cliché form, we ended up teaching one another.

Gripping my list of talking points that I prepared ahead of time in case I came up against a room of silence, I asked if the students wanted to tell me a little about what they already covered in class. A sea of hands rose throughout the classroom — I didn’t even need to bribe the boys and girls with the bags of candy I picked up as a backup plan.

The students told me about the different things they learned in their unit on feminism: They watched Hillary Swank in ‘Iron Jawed Angels’ when going over the women’s suffrage movement; read Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s most famous short story, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’; and analyzed Shakespeare’s ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ through a gendered lens.

Granted the perspective seems limited to white, mainstream feminism, it doesn’t necessarily address the myriad of social locations and multiple analyses that go into women’s and equal rights. But keep in mind, this is a seventh grade class that’s discussing topics and reading short stories that most people aren’t exposed to unless they seek it out on their own terms. Teachers didn’t expose me to most of this information until college.

A unit on feminism is optional, and the teacher is responsible for creating a unique curriculum. I was seriously impressed with this progressive effort toward educating younger students and introducing them to a critical way of thinking.

We also focused on talking about how feminist issues and gender construct affect all of us on a daily basis on a smaller scale. One student even came up to me after class and confessed that our conversation felt especially meaningful because the class could better relate to feminism.

I listened carefully as male students embraced feminist ideas. They actively engaged in conversations with their female peers about how women influenced men to give them the right to vote, the importance of equality in the work place and why there needs to be as many women’s sports teams as there are men’s teams.

One of the male students even made an insightful comparison of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ and the oppressive nature of the lead female characters’ husbands — their ideas, not mine. The open student dialogue and the instructor’s decision to teach feminism to this impressionable age thrilled me.

For one afternoon, I felt at ease and enlightened by a future generation of students who are more aware and passionate about women’s and equal rights than I could hope for.

Krystie Yandoli is a senior women and gender studies and English and textual studies major. Her column appears every Wednesday. She can be reached at klyandol@syr.edu or followed on Twitter at @KrystieLYandoli.