Just another part of the body

This is an edited extract from my first post about breasts at chriscurnow.com:

This is a story from my teaching days when I was a Year 11 form teacher. During this particular year I took form assembly each morning to call the roll and give the daily announcements. One of the girls in my form was a truly delightful and attractive young lady — let's call her Julie. This day it was still early in the year and the girls were wearing their summer dresses (which are probably the same cut in every school in Australia). Our form assembly was held in the Chemistry room which meant I stood at the elevated desk at the front of the room while students who wanted to discuss anything stood on the lower floor at the front of the room (so you already know what's going to happen next...). I was fairly strict about uniform. Boys wearing their ties with shirts tucked in and girls having their top buttons done up. One morning Julie came to the front desk to ask me something. I noticed her top button was undone. Given our relative positions I couldn't help noticing her cleavage. In another situation I could have enjoyed it for a moment - maybe I did very briefly. But after a couple of microseconds hesitation, I said "Julie, do your top button up please." Her response has lived with me to this day. Some girls would have said this as a throw away, just a tiny bit teasing line. But Julie did not, at that time, have an ounce of the tease or seductress in her. She said, almost quizically, "Why does it matter? It's just another part of the body." Now, I'm quite certain I could have asked any of the boys in the class to explain to her that her breasts were not just another part of her body. But she was genuinely puzzled why we men are so fascinated with breasts. I hope she learned to appreciate her own beauty and the mystique that her breasts held. But at that stage, as a young emerging woman she just wanted to be a person with everyday ordinary part of the body breasts. So what!