Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

OddClass134 t1_j9ye5zw wrote

Reply to comment by HumpSlackWails in Transgender teacher dismissed for sharing inappropriate TikTok videos with Maine middle school students by jaypr4576

>Broadcasting your social activism to classrooms... eh... not the same thing.

I understand this point, but for LGBT people and especially trans people, the simple act of existing is often social activism in and of itself.

When I was in school we had a gay teacher who could not legally marry his partner. When he became able to, he told us he was getting married. This is no different than a straight teacher saying they are getting married, very PG and acceptable, but the fact he was gay and doing it carried significant political baggage.

It seems unreasonable to ask people who's identities themselves are topics of public debate to avoid bringing politics into the classroom. I don't see anyway they could reasonably do that without intentionally hiding aspects of their lives that non-LGBT teachers would never be expected to hide.

Not to mention education itself is far from "neutral" politically anyway, but that's a different conversation.

21

mymaineaccount46 t1_j9yioup wrote

There's a difference in offhand mentioning something and sharing your socials with students. The latter is inappropriate regardless of your lifestyle or beliefs.

Students should have no involvement with a teacher's private life.

19

OddClass134 t1_j9ylq67 wrote

I think the appropriateness of sharing social media is up for discussion, frankly. When I was in high school, my best friend's mother was my government teacher. My algebra teacher rented a room from my other friends parents and came to their Christmas parties. My drama teacher held a summer BBQ for all the graduating seniors.

Saying teachers cannot share any of their private life with students seems needlessly cold. There's nothing wrong with a teacher relating to their students on a human level. Talking about the birth of their new child, talking about where they grew up, bringing their husband/wife to the school recital, etc.

Social media profiles can be very private, but often times they aren't. Often times it's no different than a digital resume, especially on platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

Tbh this push to dehumanize and automate teacher/student interaction is a really sad by-product imo of this whole trans debate. Is there a line? Of course, but schools are still communities, not factory assembly lines.

6

mymaineaccount46 t1_j9yqbar wrote

I don't think it is a byproduct of the trans debate. The line between private and school life has always been present. Teachers are meant to be authority figured to their students, not their friends. That isn't something that should be changed and it's entirely inappropriate to be giving out your socials to students regardless of who you are, your beliefs, gender etc.

11

Stormypwns t1_j9zak4h wrote

Schools are communities? That's laughable. There might be communities within schools but a school is not a community. A school is a percentage (or the whole depending on size) of a town's population of children. That's not a community. That's like saying the state of Arizona is a community.

You being personally related to teachers or hanging out with teachers outside of school has no bearing on what is appropriate in a classroom. There is a difference between even briefly talking about your personal life if it's relevant to something related to the class and making students watch (possibly politically themed) TikToks. I certainly don't want conservatives doing it (especially creationists. Imagine a creationist science teacher making students watch Christian TikTok?) and we don't need to be doing it either. Class is for learning the material. If the teacher wants to hang out with the kids and show them TikToks she can do it on her own time outside of the classroom.

0

OddClass134 t1_j9zcg4o wrote

>There might be communities within schools but a school is not a community.

So pep rallys, sports teams, mascots and school colors, school dances, yearbooks... should we get rid of all of those? Those are community activities and signifiers.

We could just send the children to all sit in little pods by themselves and watch videos abut the things they need to learn. No need to worry about them interacting with other humans or being anything more than-- as you put it-- "a percentage of the population". Imagine the efficiency!

>If the teacher wants to hang out with the kids and show them TikToks she can do it on her own time outside of the classroom.

???

5

Stormypwns t1_j9zr0aq wrote

What are you questioning here? The point is self explanatory. Sports teams are for their own sake. There are communities in the school based around them. Not everyone in the school partakes. I sure as hell didn't. You go to dances to hang out with your social group - not necessarily anyone else from the school. You don't buy your yearbook just to have a picture of Timmy from a different class in a different year who you never talked to once in your entire career there.

I could better see this argument made for a university perhaps, as you get to choose where you go to college, and based off that fact alone you have something in common with your fellow students in that you all made the decision to choose that university.

However this only tangentially related to the point at hand, and you've dodged the legitimacy of my actual argument; no pushing your personal belief systems on the kids no matter how right you are or believe yourself to be. Tell them that you're trans, that you were born that way, and that you deserve the same respect as everyone else on the faculty. Don't make them watch biased propaganda videos. That's never okay no matter who is doing it. That's not what school is for. School is to learn.

As for the honestly fucking dumb 'pods' point, you still need human teachers to answer questions and grade papers. The kids still need to be around and interact with each other to socialize and learn about the rules and expected behaviors in society.

However your teacher isn't your friend; they're your teacher. I can't go out and have drinks with my direct manager. Why? Because it's a conflict of interest. In the real world there are going to be people you're going to have to interact and show a level of respect towards who will not be your friend, and at school kids should be taught a certain level of professionalism with their teachers.

Personally I was blessed to have an instructor, an amazing person, who I hung out with on several occasions after school. Sometimes he'd take some of us to Dennys and we'd discuss projects we were working on, or he even helped some of his students out with some tough personal situations. At Dennys, or at the independence day parade, or wherever else he was David. In the classroom, however, he was always 'sir' or 'Mr.___', and we treated him professionally and with respect.

−3