Yep, I said it. I am also gay, pro-choice, pro-environment, and pretty progressive on most contemporary issues. The fact that American textbooks gloss over facts and circumstances that I find to be critical--say, for example, the genocide of Native Americans, or the fact that many Founding Fathers were slaveowners--was the impetus for my project on the politics of textbooks. But NOT because I want to brainwash my students with my way of thinking; rather, because I want factual information to be shared, and critical thinking skills fostered, among students.
I am proud of the fact that I'm an opinionated person, but I already know that's not going to be a centerpiece of my classroom. I know that I'll have to be out as a gay teacher, because that's just who I am. But I'm perfectly aware that could be an issue, probably not so much with my students but possibly with their parents and/or with my administration. Teachers have, for a long time, been held to a somewhat different moral standard than the general public...which probably has something to do with the fact that they're mostly women.
Exhibit A:
It's not showing up so well, but this is a teacher's contract from 1923 which stipulates, among other things, that the teacher agrees
-Not to get married
-Not to keep company with men
-To be home between 8pm-6am
-Not to loiter in downtown ice cream shops (after all, we all know how smarmy ice cream shops are!)
-Not to leave town without permission from the Board of Trustees
-Not to smoke or drink
-Not to dress in bright colors
-To wear at least two petticoats at all times (!)
Etc, etc ad nauseum. Ugh! How is it that there's any level of expectation that a teacher's life outside of school is anything other than their own?
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