He explained how he had to just stand there, watching without helping her, until a female teacher was able to come over to assist instead.
It’s not just that he wouldn’t do it. In fact, he couldn’t do it. There was no way that he could comfortably help this little girl, who didn’t understand the social and political implications that came with her request, without worrying about his reputation, he explained.
“I believe I’ll get in trouble,” he said. “The thing is, the way society has ingrained in people’s heads that males working with kids that age are predators has got me in a place to where I don’t want to work with kids K through three.”
In this view, the normal job of teachers to assist their students in any way possible can’t be done properly in the highly politicized and intensely watched profession.
Of course, there are perfectly reasonable examples where criticism and investigation are justified. But not every teacher is going to abuse their power and violate the rules.
There are some who still want to do good– some who just want to take care of children and help them learn.
“I’m always afraid of a parent seeing me doing something with a student that’s completely innocent and misconstruing it, reporting it to my district office, and then I get a call from them saying, ‘come to the office, you’ve got an allegation,'” he explained. “I don’t want to deal with that.”
Fear has driven people away from the profession in recent years. It isn’t a fear of getting caught doing something wrong.
Rather a fear of people misunderstanding good actions and intentions and the repercussions to come from that.
“That’s why you don’t see a lot of male teachers in elementary schools– for that reason,” he argued.
“It’s sad that society thinks that way, and it’s keeping a lot of good people, such as myself, from working those lower grades.”