I did my student teaching in the spring of my senior year. I turned 21 towards the end of that semester and was only a few years older than some of the students. Being a young, female teacher in a high school is a tenuous position indeed. I was smart enough to keep my distance from the students. Those who aren't smart enough to do so put themselves on mighty dangerous ground. The kids, and you really need to see them as kids, want to break down that barrier. They will test, needle and continually make your life a living hell in an attempt to do so. But if you let them you're basically throwing in the towel on your career. (Really you could make the case that a career change would be to the teacher's benefit, but for the sake of argument we'll say it's not in the teacher's best interest.)
I was warned that one of the boys in my tenth grade class had "issues with women." He was notorious for harassing female teachers and had been purposely placed in a male teacher's English class only to have lucky me step in for the semester. "Jason" was a young teacher's worst nightmare. He was just smart enough to be a real pain in the ass. He interrupted constantly, asked for passes to lav so often they had been forbidden him (which of course didn't stop him from requesting them repeatedly). He loved to make a scene and was constantly out of his seat, making inappropriate comments and joking with class mates. As much as I had a terribly difficult time controlling him, I fared better than other women had before me. Jason had made himself notorious among teachers and students in science class a year beforehand. They were doing an experiment using pH strips to test the baseness or acidity of certain substances. Well, Jason found this so interesting that he decided to test the pH of his urine. So right in the middle of class he unzipped his pants and peed on the pH strip. Can you imagine being the teacher trying to handle that situation? As the teacher I was working with explained to me, "If he hasn't whipped it out in front of you yet, you're doing just fine."
Jason was not the only difficult student I had to deal with that semester. I had two seniors that were also a handful. I made the mistake of asking the class if they were going to the Freshman Dance. One of the boys responses was, "Of course, fresh meat," with a devilish grin. To which his friend replied, "Oh not me, Miss Diosa, I like older women," feigning sincerity. I swear I can see how female teachers who weren't popular with boys in high school or maybe even in college can be seduced by a male student. I'm not saying it's right. It's illegal and wrong, wrong, wrong. But if you were say the slightly over-weight wall flower or the nerdy girl with glasses and braces that sat home on Friday nights (luckily I was not) and now you're the young new teacher and the captain of the football team is flirting with you, who is seducing who?
I think we could make a real case for quarantining adolescent boys until they are able to control their hormones and behave in a public arena. At least until they can contain themselves from publicly exposing their genitals at school and referring to freshman girls as "fresh meat." And yes, this would go for my sons too. (As far as flirting with teachers goes, I do see that as the responsiblity of the teacher to squelch immediately.)
P.S. - I feel compelled to confess that Trouble publically exposed himself on the school bus this year, but I do believe we've put an end to that already. At six it's excusable. At fifteen, not so much.
Little Cole exposed himself in the first week of kindergarten. He was 4. He had no idea what he was doing wrong and we have no idea what would have prompted such bizarre behavior, but I'm hoping like hell he wasn't trying to seduce his 137 year old dinosaur of a teacher.
Posted by: Liz | July 17, 2007 at 12:42 PM
What is it with boys and their penises? I think Trouble did it as retaliation in getting picked on, to shut the other kid up.
Posted by: Diosa | July 17, 2007 at 02:34 PM