# Miss Kaitlyn's first day in the classroom. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 5, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209 "2005-01-05T16:17:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/101 "2005-01-07T01:28:02Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > I wanna see a matchup between Jackie Chan and **Kaitlyn** now! Rent a copy of Bruce Lee’s _The Chinese Connection_. Jackie Chan was an extra and a stuntman in the movie. In one establishing shot of the kung fu dojo, you can clearly see Jackie sparring with one of the female students. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/102 "2005-01-07T01:31:55Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > **Kaitlyn** versus Jackie Chan? Feh. **Kaitlyn** versus Michelle Yeoh: now _that_ would be a fight! I’d kind of prefer Zhang Ziyi or Maggie Cheung. ---
**Author:** ![seal\_tamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@seal\_tamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_tamer)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/103 "2005-01-07T01:35:44Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > [Tell 'em you _used_ to be Chinese, but you had an operation, and now you’re Korean.] Brilliant! Of course, that being Texas, she could say “I’m Laotian!” a la King of the Hill. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/104 "2005-01-07T01:41:34Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > The “who would win in a fight…” question is a trick question. Jackie Chan is _always_ the good guy, and as anyone with half a brain can see Miss **Kaitlyn** is clearly on the side of good. So they’d never fight anyway. Bruce Lee’s _Enter the Dragon_. Jacke Chan is one of the guards Bruce beats in the big fight in the underground lair–Bruce breaks his neck. He was also the stunt double for the evil boss in the final confrontation in _The Chinese Connection_ (the actor playing the boss was in his 60’s), where he also gets killed by Bruce. Time for the meeting, so I’ve got to take a break, but rest assured, if anybody else has any questions about old martial arts movies, I’ll be happy to get to them as soon as I can. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/105 "2005-01-07T01:43:15Z")
Kaitlyn, your principal seems to be a cool guy. It’s not entirely clear from the story - how did the rest of the teachers take it? (And I can’t believe you seriously played it like that…that was great.) ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/106 "2005-01-07T01:47:24Z")
I just want to say that the first time I read **Kaitlyn** vs. Jackie Chan, I misread it as **Kaitlyn** vs. Jack T. Chick. Now that one just wouldn’t be fair to the old guy (not that he’s ever been fair to anyone in his life…). ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/107 "2005-01-07T01:49:20Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > Oh, and ninjas. We _have_ to have ninjas. 😃 Oooh! Pick me, pick me, pick me! _waves hand in the air like a 2nd-grader_ Seriously, though - I’m waiting with baited breath to hear how the parent meeting went. My mother is a substitute teacher and used to teach full-time; she’s often said that regardless of grade level, the parents are generally less mature than the parents. :rolleyes: I hope everything goes great! ---
**Author:** ![shamrock227](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@shamrock227](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shamrock227)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/108 "2005-01-07T01:52:21Z")
Darn it. I was hoping to get back here before the meeting. I am sending happy thoughts and good vibes your way. I really hope it all goes smoothly. I hope these parents are as sensible as their children (and your Principal) and once they see what a great person you are will understand how lucky they are to have you teaching their children. ---
**Author:** ![shamrock227](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@shamrock227](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shamrock227)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/109 "2005-01-07T01:54:47Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > If we are going for the best all around sneering bad guy: Alan Rickman Oh, could I please be Mr. Rickman’s _personal_ assistant? please please please please please please please please please? ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/110 "2005-01-07T01:56:39Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > I’d rather not, really, unless anyone has specific questions about the Paleolithic period. It all happened more than half my life ago, and the only time I think about it is when the subject comes up here on the Boards. I do. When you strode out from your cave periodically to lay claim to another mate and drag her back into your cave to do…uh…cavewoman type of stuff, did your jaguar skin hook up over the left shoulder, or the right shoulder? 😃 **kaitlyn** , I respect the way you are handling this. You are, in short, a professional and a lady. I cannot wait for the shoe to drop and hear about the adults handling this. Funny you mention the Chinese/Japanese/Korean thing. Both of my kids are Korean adoptees, and just today the **Fem-Bot ™** was telling me how the kids at Korean Culture Camp every summer hack on each other, saying " you just don’t like me cause I’m Korean"- they try out the words and play around to find ways to deal with it and negotiate that stuff. I like what one Doper said- tell em you _were_ Chinese but now you’re Korean. That is brilliant. 🙂 My thoughts and support are with you. Deserving as anyone else is of a fair shake and respect of those peers, parents and students you deal with, I hope that in the coming days and weeks this fades away. Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/111 "2005-01-07T02:17:03Z")
Speaking of Yomiko Readman, have you picked up the TV series yet? It is a true sequel, apparently. (And your wife could be Nenene as much as Ms. Deep) The sexual issues in ROD, while powerful, do present a problem insofar as… well, I’d _love_ to use it as an intro to anime for younger kids, as well as a sort of reading is powerful thing. But it’s just not kid-friendly. Speaking as a former student teacher and the kid of a retired 30 year teacher. I adore it, though. (Nothing wrong with the sexual issues _except_ for the narrow facet of showing it to kids) What do you use for your 6th graders, these days? Harry’s a bit long for schoolwork. In my time, we used Magic Schoolbus, but I was first and second. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/112 "2005-01-07T02:26:20Z")
> [@shamrock227](#): > > Oh, could I please be Mr. Rickman’s _personal_ assistant? > > please please please please please please please please please? In that case, could I at least be the personal assistant to Mr. Rickman’s personal assistant? ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/113 "2005-01-07T02:31:03Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Sorry, but you’re not. If your DNA still comes back XY, you’re male, regardless of how much surgery you have performed. I suppose if you define male as consisting of the XY configuration, you’re right, although at that point you’re also begging the question, i.e., you’re just restating what the chromosomal config is, using a term of considerably more volatile and less agreed-upon meaning. If someone asks if you are masculine or manly, I could reply similarly, that if you have an XY configuration you are by definition both masculine and manly, but in real life that doesn’t capture what people actually mean when they say that so-and-so is masculine or is manly, now does it? Now try to wrap your mind around this: what most people mean when they say someone is male is not that their chromosomal config is XY but rather that they appear to be, and present as, and define themselves as, male. Likewise for female. If you feel like word-appropriation is taking place, or, alternatively, that we need a new word in order to distinguish between males who are male as a consequence of an XY config and males who are male despite not having that config, wouldn’t it make more sense to open a new thread to explore that and invite comments rather than come in here and whip out your vitriol and piss all over someone’s celebratory (and somewhat suspenseful) thread? What’s in it for you? Speaking from direct personal experience, I can say that the general trend in identifying as “a man” is to make applicants to the title “prove” it and to accept people into the category only grudgingly, as if it were a great honor. And yet, definitionally, denotationally, to be an adult male is to be a man, just as to possess the XY configuraton is to be a male, and just as to attain the age of 21 is to be an adult. Clearly, these supposedly objectively-defined categories just don’t work that way in the real world. **Miss Kaitlyn** has made sense of her life through the observation that she is a woman. You, lacking (I assume) direct personal social contact with **Miss Kaitlyn** , aren’t in a good position to contradict that, especially if people are accepting her definition of herself as a good and accurate description. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/114 "2005-01-07T02:45:31Z")
On second thought, I gave you entirely too reasonable a reply, **Clothahump**. Meanwhile, the action on all that seems to be relocating to GD, if not also the Pit (I’ll check). \*\*Go **Kaitlyn** go. You rock. Teach on. There and in here. ---
**Author:** ![MrFantsyPants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@MrFantsyPants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrFantsyPants)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/115 "2005-01-07T03:29:24Z")
alright, which one of you wiseguys baited my breath? ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/116 "2005-01-07T03:55:37Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Are you familiar with Lord Fanny of the Invisbles? If so, would you agree that Morrison failed at creating a transsexual character and created a gay transvestite? My wife got me the _Invisibles_ trade paperbacks for me for Christmas, but I haven’t gotten around to reading them yet. Of the mainstream comics that have had transsexual characters, I think _Alpha Flight_ did a fairly decent job, _Camelot 3000_ absolutely nailed it, and the story line in _HERO_ was badly-written softcore tg porn. > [@](#): > > And how come Jim Lee is Korean but Stan Lee isn’t? Jim Lee isn’t Korean, he just tells people that 'cause he knows that’s how you get the babes. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/117 "2005-01-07T04:06:14Z")
**Kaitlyn** , I am so happy to hear that you’re being accepted as _yourself_ at your new job. You’ve got guts, and a hell of a lot of class, and I’m sure you’ll pass some of that on to your students. ---
**Author:** ![shamrock227](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@shamrock227](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shamrock227)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/118 "2005-01-07T04:06:39Z")
> [@MrFantsyPants](#): > > alright, which one of you wiseguys baited my breath? _sniff_ Wow, it _does_ smell like worms :eek: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Survivor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Survivor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Survivor)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/119 "2005-01-07T05:42:13Z")
Better late than never I hope… But I’m really proud of you… I’ve been an openly Gay teacher for about 14 years… and even though there are issues sometimes, the kids will respect you for being honest about who you are… I still find it strange that I teach high school and the Gay kids, the transgendered kids AND the straight kids wanna hang out and help out in my room… After all, when I was in high school letting people know I was Gay as my worst nightmare… Now I’m in high school every day and I think the kids learn tolerance and respect in my class as much as the “official” subject I teach… You’re gonna do GREAT! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dangergene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@dangergene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangergene)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2005, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209/120 "2005-01-07T06:29:59Z")
**Kaitlin** , this thread has made me laugh and cry in equal parts. I’m sorry to admit I was, at one time, something of a narrow-minded git, and that ashames me a lot. There were issues in this world I simply couldn’t understand. I’m happy to say that it’s through threads like this, and close friends with similar experiences, that have helped me become, I hope, a better person. I thank you for your candor, your earnest passion for life, and your ability to articulate something that most people find so difficult to discuss. You are a truly beautiful woman! Oh, and we’re the same age AND we both read comix! So cool! (you’re a rat, yes?). _It’s been said before, but…_ **Go Kaitlin!!!** **Survivor**. one of my favourite teachers in high school, some fifteen years ago, was openly gay and would come to school events with his BF, (which was NEVER commented on, except to say how cute they looked together). He had taught my uncle some fifteen years before me, and to this day remains one of the coolest, most understanding and just straight-up decent people at that school! His honesty was, and remains, a shining example to the students (technically to the teaching staff too, but some of them were asshats and couldn’t grasp the example set before them!). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miss-kaitlyns-first-day-in-the-classroom/283209.md?page=7)