Mom's "Back Yard"
(The extra pic to the right is apparently an rtsp (real time streming protocol) link so people with mobile phones can view the video, too... which is cool on Google's behalf, don't you think?)
Friday, June 27, 2008
Teacher Sex Scandals
I was just watching CNN and they were talking about teacher sex scandals... The piece involved three teachers arrested in the past few days for having sex with students... you can see it here (I don't know how long they archive video on CNN, so if it disappears, I'm sorry). So, this story brings me to a problem I've had for a few years regarding these types of incidents. Actually, I have a few problems with it all, but I'll get there, eventually... probably.
All I ever see on the news anymore when it comes to "teacher sex scandals" is stories about female teachers having sex with male students. While you certainly can find stories of male teachers getting in trouble for having sex with female students if you do a search (like this one), the vast majority of stories you're going to come across involve female teachers and male students (including a majority of the stories in the aforementioned search)... Is this part of a "disturbing new trend" (as Dr. Phil put it in a recent show), or is it something that's been going on all along and is just now coming to light because people are looking for the "next big thing?" What I mean is that teachers, both male and female, have been acting inappropriately with their students probably since the inception of schools... and when I was a kid, times were different in respect to the perceptions of men and women... at least I honestly think that. Women were perceived as wholesome and men were perceived as, well, not. When you heard about a "teacher sex scandal" when I was younger, it was always about a male teacher... but were there improprieties happening between female teachers and their students? Absolutely.
The CNN piece, at one point, mentions a "double standard" regarding the issue, saying something to the point of, "If this had been a male teacher, he would have been buried under the jail." I found that rather amusing. No, I actually found that to be hilarious... When I was in high school, I can think of at least four different male teachers that had inappropriate relationships with students. Were any of them arrested? Nope. Were any of them fired? Nope. All that happened was one "retired" and the other three were simply shipped out to other school districts (one of which got two girls at my school pregnant before he "disappeared")... where two of them got in trouble for having inappropriate relationships with students... again.
There were also at least three female teachers that I know of that had relationships with male students. One was fired, flat out, and the other two "got away with it" and continued to teach at the school for many more years.
...and these were just the ones that everyone knew about... who knows what else was going on that we didn't hear about through the wonderful social network that is high school (I mean, c'mon... if a girl farted in the basement, three minutes later everyone knew about it in the third floor study hall).
I had an ex that had sex with a teacher... All that came out of it was her getting an STD and him getting off (pardon the pun) clean, despite everyone and their mothers knowing about it.
Now, I will say this... Most of my female teachers growing up were, how you say, old... but there were a few teachers that popped around through my high school years that I would have gladly had inappropriate relationships with... and while I would have known it was wrong, I would have enjoyed the hell out of it.
Yes, male teachers do get arrested today for improprieties with students... you may have to dig quite a bit deeper to find the stories about them, but they're there... but if a female teacher gets busted for it, it's freakin' national news from the start... I can't remember the last time Nancy Grace devoted a show to a male teacher getting caught with one of his students... has she ever?
I guess my point is this... no matter how you slice it, male teacher or female teacher, it's wrong... so how about equal time on the news for the male teachers that get caught? Or at least stop being so uber-dramatic when a female teacher gets caught and making it a national news story, anyway. It's been going on forever, for cryin' out loud. If you think this is some "new trend," you're totally fooling yourself.
I was just watching CNN and they were talking about teacher sex scandals... The piece involved three teachers arrested in the past few days for having sex with students... you can see it here (I don't know how long they archive video on CNN, so if it disappears, I'm sorry). So, this story brings me to a problem I've had for a few years regarding these types of incidents. Actually, I have a few problems with it all, but I'll get there, eventually... probably.
All I ever see on the news anymore when it comes to "teacher sex scandals" is stories about female teachers having sex with male students. While you certainly can find stories of male teachers getting in trouble for having sex with female students if you do a search (like this one), the vast majority of stories you're going to come across involve female teachers and male students (including a majority of the stories in the aforementioned search)... Is this part of a "disturbing new trend" (as Dr. Phil put it in a recent show), or is it something that's been going on all along and is just now coming to light because people are looking for the "next big thing?" What I mean is that teachers, both male and female, have been acting inappropriately with their students probably since the inception of schools... and when I was a kid, times were different in respect to the perceptions of men and women... at least I honestly think that. Women were perceived as wholesome and men were perceived as, well, not. When you heard about a "teacher sex scandal" when I was younger, it was always about a male teacher... but were there improprieties happening between female teachers and their students? Absolutely.
The CNN piece, at one point, mentions a "double standard" regarding the issue, saying something to the point of, "If this had been a male teacher, he would have been buried under the jail." I found that rather amusing. No, I actually found that to be hilarious... When I was in high school, I can think of at least four different male teachers that had inappropriate relationships with students. Were any of them arrested? Nope. Were any of them fired? Nope. All that happened was one "retired" and the other three were simply shipped out to other school districts (one of which got two girls at my school pregnant before he "disappeared")... where two of them got in trouble for having inappropriate relationships with students... again.
There were also at least three female teachers that I know of that had relationships with male students. One was fired, flat out, and the other two "got away with it" and continued to teach at the school for many more years.
...and these were just the ones that everyone knew about... who knows what else was going on that we didn't hear about through the wonderful social network that is high school (I mean, c'mon... if a girl farted in the basement, three minutes later everyone knew about it in the third floor study hall).
I had an ex that had sex with a teacher... All that came out of it was her getting an STD and him getting off (pardon the pun) clean, despite everyone and their mothers knowing about it.
Now, I will say this... Most of my female teachers growing up were, how you say, old... but there were a few teachers that popped around through my high school years that I would have gladly had inappropriate relationships with... and while I would have known it was wrong, I would have enjoyed the hell out of it.
Yes, male teachers do get arrested today for improprieties with students... you may have to dig quite a bit deeper to find the stories about them, but they're there... but if a female teacher gets busted for it, it's freakin' national news from the start... I can't remember the last time Nancy Grace devoted a show to a male teacher getting caught with one of his students... has she ever?
I guess my point is this... no matter how you slice it, male teacher or female teacher, it's wrong... so how about equal time on the news for the male teachers that get caught? Or at least stop being so uber-dramatic when a female teacher gets caught and making it a national news story, anyway. It's been going on forever, for cryin' out loud. If you think this is some "new trend," you're totally fooling yourself.
Monday, June 23, 2008
George Carlin (1937 - 2008)
I used to love George Carlin when I was younger... I hadn't really gotten into what he had been doing recently, though... It seemed like he went from really funny and insightful to boring and bitter... I dunno, maybe it was just me, but his last few HBO comedy specials just didn't make me laugh hardly at all... which is sad because, as I stated, I really used to love him. I was probably six or seven when I heard a routine about "Fuckin' Jim's Cookies!" I always thought that was the funniest thing on the planet... yes, I know, six or seven year-olds probably shouldn't hear that kind of language, but my parents knew it wasn't going to warp me (too much)... and, of course, my mother still refers to me as, "my son, who cusses like a trucker," whenever she introduces me to someone...
Carlin was also the guy that probably first said something that I get constantly obsessed with... "Where's the blue food?" Yeah, since he said that, some wisenheimer thought blue raspberry would be a good idea... whatever... it's phony blue... they needed something blue and poor raspberries became the sacrifice.
Regardless of how I feel about his later humor (which honestly, I really don't feel much of anything), his humor was amazing... it took a very brave guy to do what he did and say what he said... and it's very sad to see such a legend leave...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)