Teacher, teacher, tell me the news!
posted in Pop Culture, Blogging, School, News |The newsies are agog at the notion that Miley Cyrus has (gasp!) revealed herself (gasp!) in a truly artsy pic by Annie Leibowitz, and by (gasp!) a picture of her lounging against her boyfriend that (gasp!) shows her midriff (o the shock, o the horror!). Stories are written saying that she is setting foot on the primrose path to ruin that has been taken by other teen stars lately–specifically Britney and her ilk.
Our culture is totally schizophrenic. On the one hand, we’re practically drowning in pictures and videos of scantily clad females doing all sorts of things that one might expect scantily clad–or unclad–females to be doing. Licentiousness abounds. On the other, a 15-year-old has a few pics taken and suddenly Moms Of Pop Culture Unite to prostrate themselves upon their chaises longues, hands to their foreheads, having the vapors that the Queen of Pre-Teen Clean is allowing herself to be defiled. The hordes of teeny tweeny Hannah Montana fans are suddenly going to transform into an army of mini-Lolitas, and it’s All Miley’s Fault. Prudery rears its ugly head.
OmegaMom is rolling her eyes here, big time.
OmegaMom is also rolling her eyes at an article about "When Young Teachers Go Wild On The Web".
Kozmik All help us: 22-year-old teachers have MySpace pages. And they…and they…omigawd, how can my trembling fingers write this?? They have pictures on those pages! Pictures of (gasp!) themselves holding (gasp!) bottles of tequila! Or, even worse, paintings they have done showing women’s lingerie peeping out from under upflung skirts. Or (shudder!) paintings of frontal nudes!
(One does wonder if those paintings were anything like these…)
And they say things! Like "rocking out with some deaf kids. It. Is. Awesome."
Or talking about bl0w j0bs.
Or showing posters about cartoon sperm.
What is wrong with these teachers?! Have they no decorum?! No reserve?! Aren’t they aware they are molding young children’s minds?! How dare they have lives of their own! How dare they have thoughts of their own!
Now, granted, each and every one of the things mentioned above could be taken too far. Let’s not show pictures of orgies featuring oneself in the buff. But in and of themselves, my opinion about the examples in the article is…well…um…hell, these are 20-something teachers.
I was party-hearty girl until I reached my early 30s. Well, not as "hearty" as some, but I went out, I drank, I partied, I danced, I stayed up all weekend long, I had hangovers, I talked sex with all my buds, I toked joints, I had sex, I listened to rock-n-roll. And if the web and blogs had been around then, I’d probably have blogged about all of the above.
It might have been drearily boring. I have to admit that my overwhelming response to most blogs or MySpace pages put out by folks in their late teens and early 20s is that they are an appallingly vacuous, inane collection of stream of consciousness gossip, in conjunction with angsty poetry. This is why, when I use the "next blog" button on Blogger, I go through about fifty blogs before I find something I would consider even vaguely interesting.
I can’t imagine Mrs. Shoetree, the dotter’s kindergarten teacher, having a webpage with a poster about cartoon sperm, or paintings of frontal nudes, or talking about "rocking out" with anyone; she is, after all, older than me, and more staid. But if she did I wouldn’t care, because she’s a damn fine kindy teacher who my dotter adores. Which is, after all this bloviating, my main point: Folks, teachers have Real Lives. Yes! I know it’s a surprise, but, hey, there it is, and it’s my pleasure to pass this piece of arcane knowledge on to you. Teachers are Real, Live Human Beings who, amazingly enough, have been known to go to parties, or fall in love, or be indiscreet.
In a refreshing departure from administrative powerhunger, some administrator actually said that webpages should be handled case by case. (What, no standardized testing?!) On the other hand, another administrator type had this to say: "We all understand the importance of living a public life above reproach…"
Dear lord. We are doomed; the only people who will go into teaching or politics twenty years from now are people who are upright, humorless prigs…
