I am loving this thread!
That’s all.
I’d first like do add myself to the list of people that are complimenting you on your classy handling of this.
Then I’d like to suggest that you think very carefully before posting anything unladylike here, in response to anything. The chances are probably small, but there is a chance that someone from your area of Texas, or someone a lot less understanding then most of the people you have been dealing with, might read this and be able to connect your SDMB postings with your real life. You really don’t need a little well deserved venting coming back to bite you.
Point taken, and good advice. Also, thank you for the similar advice iampunha. I should know better than that. I’m not as foolish as that sounds; I actually use my own laptop for posting from work, not a school-owned machine, and I only do so during duty-free times, but a bit of extra caution could be exercised, you’re correct.
I’ll still be posting a response, just one more reasonable in its expression, and doing so from home.
For Mr. P or for me? If it’s for me, well, it’s pretty obvious who that character would need to be. This is the only person really qualified to play her.
Damn. You’d think that in this day and age, people would have gotten over their idiotic prejudices. There’s nothing wrong with having a Korean school teacher!
Mr P must be played by Ben Stein.
“Do we have any freaks? Beuller? Beuller?”
And, in my opinion when you want to explain gender issues to kids you can’t beat A Baby Named X
As Shibboleth said, I look a little like Grace Park in her Battlestar Galactica guise.
Start with This image. They’ve intentionally made up Grace here to look a little more masculine to fit her role as a fighter jock, which gets her fairly close to my face shape. Now imagine a little darker skin, true black hair, amber eyes (tinted contacts, but hey, if I gotta wear 'em anyway, might as well use 'em to my advantage), and eyebrows thinned out to a nice feminine arch, and you’ve got me without my makeup.
But I wouldn’t be caught dead in that outfit.
I see! My my!
Just wanted to ad my voice to the chorus.
Way to go Kaitlyn!! You do indeed rock…
Kaitlyn, first of all, yay you! You and Mr. P have handled this so wonderfully. I wish I had a kid to transfer into your class.
My partner and I are rooting for you. (Oh, and if you came into a lesbian bar, we’d totally hang out with you!)
By the way, I have a question for you or anyone else who might know. Do you know if there are any long term negative medical effects of hormone therapy? Such as those for menopausal women taking estrogen, for example.
I’m still trying to wrap my mind around how I feel about having the boys having been transferred out of my class.
Until I do, I wanted to report Mrs. Six’s latest comment:
Mrs. Six: I hope you realize you’ve just made us the stars of some horny teenagers’ Hoshi / Boomer slashfic.
Me: Really?
Mrs. Six: Think about it. Star Trek. Battlestar Galactica. Lesbians. I’d be surprised if there aren’t two or three stories posted somewhere already.
Me: I hope somebody posts a link.
Mrs. Six: If they do, print out a copy for me.
There’s a Shatner joke here, but I just can’t make it happen.
^:)^
Glad to hear it. It’s foolish to assume that any group of people are all the same based on one encounter, and I wish I hadn’t done that.
Greatly increased risk of breast cancer and increased risk of testicular cancer while the testes are still intact. The second risk is no longer a problem for me.
Kaitlyn, I’'ve been retired from teaching for fifteen years, but getting to meet you and Mr. P and see the two of you in action would make a return to the classroom awfully tempting!
The next time I am asked what celebs I know, would you mind terribly if I claim you?
Just make sure that when you sell the rights to your story to the movie business, you stipulate that the roles of parents who take their kids out of your class must be played by pinch-faced puffy-eyed actors with bad haircuts.
Thanks for letting us in. That takes real ovaries!
I really want to have Mr. P’s babies at this point.
Kaitlyn, you’re an amazing woman.
Thanks for the thread, Kaitlyn. It alone has been worth the price of admission.
I’ve thought about what I would want to say to the parents who pulled their kids. It doesn’t have any bad words, and it’s polite, so I’ll put it here.
To the parents who took their kids from my class:
You made a mistake today. Not because your kids won’t be in my classroom–I’m sure they’ll learn their multiplication and reading skills just fine in their new class.
The mistake is the lesson you taught them. You gave them a lesson in intolerance and bigotry. You gave them a lesson in fear. You gave them a lesson in wilfull ignorance.
You can’t catch what I have. It isn’t contagious, and it won’t be a part of what I’m teaching them. I’m not going to try to indoctrinate your kids into some deviant way of thinking. All I wanted was to be treated just like any other teacher would have been treated in that situation.
If I thought that there was any chance whatsoever that your boys could “catch” what I have, I would leave the classroom today and never retern. I want only good things for the students I teach, and I would never wish the years of self-doubt and near-suicidal depression through which I suffered to be inflicted on anyone. For more than 20 years, I was in a prison out of which I could see no escape except on those occasions I considered that death. And there were more than a few of those.
I’m not asking for sympathy, just some basic understanding of what I went through, so that you can understand this: I would not wish this on anyone. I don’t want your boys to be anything other than exactly who and what they are. I hope they don’t have to struggle with issues of identity other than what every person normally encounters growing up.
I also hope that if they do struggle with issues of their sexuality when they reach that age, that you treat them with more dignity and respect than you treated me. They deserve better.
Understand this: If there were the slightest possibility that my condition could have caused anything similar in your boys, it would not have been necessary to pull them out. I would have left.
The only harm done to your sons today was done by you.
:::applause:::
Well said, Kaitlyn. Very well said.
What are your plans for this? Will you try to proactively send it to the parents, or only if there is further interaction with them?
I suspect it will be one hell of a struggle to get these people to see you as anything other than a threat.