A friend of mine is/was a teacher. Ever since she was little she wanted to be a teacher. Ever meet someone and say 'This is what they were meant to do' because everything about their person fit the profile? She got a BA in three years, got her Masters in Education and was accepted into a teaching program at age 23. Got national awards. Had kudos from Scholastic groups. Was profiled as one of those people every kid deserves to have as a teacher. On her wall were letters from kids who went to Ivy League schools because she inspired them. Parents fought to get their kids in her classes. She was used as an example to recruit other teachers, and new teachers were paired with her to learn how to motivate and engage the student body. Every kid deserves a teacher like her at least once. Having known her as a friend of a friend, I can say that she is an amazing human being that you get maybe one out of every 1000 people.

She quit 18 years in, and could not even do two summer programs for her pension. According to her, she told the school district to "fuck off" in her exit interview. She writes corporate training crap now and runs seminars.

The final straw, of many that she ran into was the massive push to kick male teachers out of the profession. When she started it was 50/50 male to female teachers in the elementary schools. When she left there was one guy left, and he was waiting to hit his 20 so he could retire. She told us stories that the woman teachers did not have the menacing presence to keep order in the classroom, that there was nobody to run to in the event of violence, and the admins always caved to the parents so the male teachers that were foolish enough to stay (her words) were walking targets. She even had stories that parents would request that their kids not be in the room with male teachers because they were afraid. afraid of what and there was a bunch of hand waving and "you know how it is" thrown around. Back in the day, telling unruly kids that Mr. BigandTall was going to come here and deal with you! was enough to restore order. A 5'3" woman, no matter how amazing a person she may be, simply cannot have that command presence that triggers our mammalian hindbrain to obey.

This is from a woman who was in a middle class mostly white district where the median income was 60K and no bussing so all the kids lived in the area. No drug issues, no real major collapse, just a boring suburban school district. Being typical for upper Midwest, when she quit, they all got ripping drunk. She took down all her teaching stuff and it sits in a box. I, and a few others, talked her out of destroying all her awards and letters; she was so done she almost had a bonfire to get rid of it all.

Because I'm male.

That is a part of the narrative, isn't it? Daytime TV and Lifetime TV and the other shit programs have ramped up that moral panic to low earth orbit. Tell someone that a kid today lives in the safest society ever created by humans and they have an immediate, almost panicked reply that you are wrong and danger is everywhere and there are pedos on every streetcorner. That stranger danger is a real threat to every child out there. And it is so frustrating that kids are locked away inside their homes because mom saw the scary story on Oprah and the kids can only socialize under the oppressive hawk-eyed glaze of their parents, they never get alone time with their friends and they are forced to use technology to have any interactions at all. Then their parents get all pissy about the computer and phones and texting etc.

But it is men that are the problem I cannot find it now, but there was a story of a woman who molested an 11 year old and got pregnat, kept the kid then sued the ELEVEN YEAR OLD BOY for child support. Because if you are having sex with an 11 year old you are vermin and should probably be in jail, permanently. That is child abuse in my book.

As we have discussed in previous threads, it is almost never strangers that molest and kidnap children. It is a parent, a priest, a teacher, a relative, someone with access to the kids who can groom them to feel comfortable or make them obedient. This fear mongering is hurting kids and crippling their growth as people and it frustrates me that there is no real way to combat it other than to ban TV for all families and run a full-on Soviet style censorship and control of the media. So you get shit on in a park, I have to follow the Boy Scouts "Cover your ass and be careful" guides and make sure that I am not alone with a kid or that they get too touchy or friendly while making constant eye contact with parent or guardians.

One of the reasons that I post these types of articles is I get a way to vent and at least give a semblance of doing something. Now I get to go teach astronomy to 40+ kids and their parents, hopefully with a better mental space.