“The sickness”
You HR folks are going to be horrified when you read this post (via Matt, via Rolf). I can’t comment on the veracity of this particular story, but I did spend a year of my life teaching English in South Korea, and I can say that it rings true to me.
The gist of the story is that an openly gay man was fired from his teaching job because, in all liklihood, he was gay. There’s even a subplot in the story about a doctor writing a note about the guy, saying he had throat cancer, just so parents of students wouldn’t be alarmed by the teacher turnover and leave the school. It’s such a cultural difference that it blows the western mind.
My wife reminded me that when she taught in Korea, she traveled there with an old school friend who was also female. Before they got jobs, they had to confirm that they weren’t lesbians. When I went there, I had hair down to my shoulders, which I had to cut before I got a job. Doesn’t really compare to being gay, but I was still bummed I had to cut my hair!
9 opinions for “The sickness”
whatever
Feb 8, 2006 at 8:56 pm
I don’t want openly gay people teaching my children here. Thankfully there are options outside the public school systems that make this possible - and quite legal.
MichaelAB
Feb 8, 2006 at 9:31 pm
Yeah, it would be absolutely HORRIBLE if a person that neither you nor your children will ever have sex with taught your child about geography or economics.
Georgia is going to institute a manditory personal finance class for their class rooms, not because it is good for the kids, but because Georgia has the highest per capita credit card debt and bankruptcies in the country. Isn’t it odd that this is a state that went through almost 200 years where it was actively illegal to be who you wanted in the privacy of your own home and were one of the poorest, most uneducated states in the country. But, just as they got over that part, they start initiating programs to correct this. (State lottery to fund collges grants, additional classes to prevent people from going broke in their early twenties, etc.)
Now, whatever, if you were specifically talking about a person trying to teach kids to BE gay, or if the classes were in the bedroom and not the classroom, I might cut you some slack there since, IMHO, it is a parent’s responsability to teach morality, not a school’s. If the teacher is posting up some he-hunk, beefcake posters in the class room, I would be first among the people coming to get that teacher replaced, gay or straight.
I don’t really know what you mean by OPENLY gay. Are you saying that it would be better to be taught by someone who was secretly gay, making wild monkey love with the janitor in the mop closet?
But I can say that I have had both gay and straight teachers and have come out as a relitively successful, well adjusted person, I think. Both the best and the worst teachers I ever had were of a very ambiguious persausion, so I cannot comment there.
And, BTW, I am all about the ladies myself.
강미
Feb 9, 2006 at 3:52 am
You won’t find many expats in Korea (former or current) who would disagree that this sort of thing ever happened. I was lucky enough to recruit for a language institute that couldn’t refuse to hire someone because of their skin color, even though I got occasional complaints that we had too many black teachers. There was nothing they could do about it. Would we have hired homosexuals? We probably did, but to my knowledge no one ever made it an issue.
Justin Thyme
Feb 9, 2006 at 11:40 am
whatever:
Yes, thank goodness you’re keeping your children away from gay people, because we all know that straight peole that hang around gay people turn gay, just like how gay people that hang around straight people turn straight.
Give me a break.
steve
Feb 12, 2006 at 10:33 pm
“Thankfully there are options outside the public school systems that make this possible - and quite legal.”
Yeah, but the problem is that most parents don’t like the white robe and head mask uniform requirements. Also, a lot of parents tend to question sending their kids on the night time field trips to cross burnings and lynchings. But hey, every kid’s a potential letterman.
MichaelAB
Feb 12, 2006 at 11:10 pm
Steve, I generally agree with you here, but this is the kind of response that lowers you to the level you are railing against. People that make assumptions of others based on their statements or preferences can fall to either side of the fence without actually falling into one of the cowpiles. I actually come from Tennessee, home of the oh-so-friendly white sheet evening wear, and I would never bring them into the discussion unless the first author did so before I did.
This is, in my view, much like the general message board rule “As soon as you bring Hitler into the discussion, you lose, unless you were talking about him in the beginning.” Escalating to the level of absurdity is never productive and immediately removes all possiblity of getting the other party to see your side.
steve
Feb 13, 2006 at 6:48 am
MichaelAB - I was actually trying to be sarcastic. The original author (not Bren) didn’t give enough specific information regarding their position, so I just took it all the way to the nth degree.
Molly, NYC
Feb 14, 2006 at 10:23 am
Georgia is going to institute a manditory personal finance class for their class rooms, not because it is good for the kids, but because Georgia has the highest per capita credit card debt and bankruptcies in the country.
I’m genuinely sorry they’re having this sort of trouble, but not surprised; if my mission in life was to scam suckers for every dime they had or ever hoped to, Georgia (and the South in general) is where I’d set up housekeeping.
Just to be clear: I don’t think every Georgian (or Southerner) is gullible or unsophisticated.
But if I was looking for someone to gull . . . I’d look for people who honestly thought they’d make out like bandits on those Social Security rollover accounts the White House was so het on last year; who think economics is some clap-for-Tinkerbell magic where, since a free market takes care of everything, government doesn’t have to do squat–no taxes, no regulation, no public programs, nothing; who (having read it in their church bulletin) believe that growing legions of working scientists wake up each morning and think “Screw Darwin, intelligent design is it“; who could be convinced that the possibility of gay marriage threatened their own.
And the South seems to have more than its share of them.
No point going after people with no money at all. So Georgia, and maybe Florida, where the local economies aren’t totally in the tank.
I’d join the local church, hire a local lawyer and let the fleecing begin.
MarkD
Feb 16, 2006 at 1:32 pm
My two cents worth - the Koreans seem to be OK with it, and it is their country, not mine or yours. Their educational system actually seems to be educating students who can do math and speak foreign languages, unlike ours. I’d rather have my children taught by the most competent teacher, regardless of orientation but they might not agree. Let the Koreans run Korea. It is not like they are flying planes into buildings and killing Americans.
However, there are teachers who do push their political, moral, and personal views where they do not belong. I think there are valid reasons for whatever to want an alternative for his/her child. He/she may have religious beliefs that consider that behavior sinful. I find little regard for differing opinions on either side of this debate. An alternative school system may be whatever’s only alternative.