The conversation sparked by the case studies has been consistently interesting. By the way, does anyone know how we made a connection to teachers' private lives? Or was that part of a different discussion? Anyway, it was interesting. In a conversation after class I made the observation that the generation we are lamenting as not having an expectation or even an understanding of privacy (at my wife's school the latest furor is over a student who published on the internet nude photos of his ex-girlfriend, also a student at the school - you just didn't have these problems years ago) are now becoming teachers. How will his manifest itself? I'm concerned that the younger generation of teachers may have difficulty with that aspect of the profession. Getting rid of your Facebook now that you have a teaching job seems an unreasonable expectation to some. One younger teacher in my building has a number of photos up in her room. In virtually every one, there is drinking (wedding, out with friends, family event, etc). I think it's a really bad idea. We are friends and I told her that. She said she's "of age" and didn't understand what the problem was. As teachers, fair or not, we are held to a different standard.
One other unrelated comment from that discussion: I was surprised by the number of women who had no interest in balancing the group by picking the one female student. As the girl was one of the top four on her merits, I got the sense that some chose not to pick her because they didn't want to be accused of choosing her only to meet some kind of quota. I think it is sometimes naive on the part of groups who have historically been oppressed to take the attitude that the oppression is over, the playing field is level, and "may the best man win." See, even our language about it is sexist. I think the reports of the American Association of University Women about how differently we treat boys and girls should be mandatory reading for teachers. And I think it's important that a girl be in this group. I'm not being patronizing - on her merits, the girl was in the top four. There seems to be this strange kind of backlash on the part of women against feminists and the opportunities they worked so hard to create. Why for instance is it so difficult to find a high school girl these days who identifies herself as a feminist? It's not a bad word and it's not a bad thing. How and why did this happen? Or am I just over analyzing, as I often do...
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2 comments:
Tom, I don't think high school aged girls know what the word "feminist" really means; they just haven't had the time to have enough life experiences or time to read about it. I'm not sure how politically minded one can be at that age with hormones running amock (sp?). Your comments about privacy were intriguing. You make a good point about how our definitions of this might change as a result of changes in technology and culture.
Tom, it's funny you've commented on that discussion that day. I'm a very easy going person at work, I'm 26 years old teaching Phys Ed. in a middle school...what could be easier or better right?! Well, I get real serious when it comes to this stuff because I deal with girls and guys that have to change their clothes for class. My VP is real hard on locker room supervision and it's a fine line between making sure everything is okay to watching kids while they change. I also battle with the fact that Girls gym shorts are WAY TOO SMALL/TOO SHORT...on top of that, THEY ROLL THEM UP further. I've made a blanket statement on a number of occasions to have them roll them down and make sure they reach the bottom of their fingertips (school dress code rule)...it's real hard to do that stuff when "susie" can go home and say that i told her her shorts were too short....was i looking? NO but I was trying to do my job....so yes, it's a scary world and you need to watch your own ass...even if the girls dont watch theirs!
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