The dogs who were just wild with excitement as they were being harnessed. Nothing gives them greater pleasure than pulling a sled ... it's what they live for. As a bonus, the mushers were rugged, masculine and outdoorsy men; my favourite type of guy!
Here are a few random thoughts from this week:
- My new classes are going exceptionally well. Most of my students are in an "academically-enriched" stream and so are there to learn; not to be rude, vandalize or otherwise cause problems. No behaviour or attendance issues here! It's an enormous pleasure to be in class every day with such talented young people!
- In my grade 10 class there are one or two very obviously gay boys. They are of the geeky - nerdy variety but are so darned cute that I have to stop myself from calling them "sweetie" in class.
- It gives me the greatest pleasure to see the confidence of these young gay men and how comfortable they (and the entire class) seem to be with their sexuality. The future looks bright!
- One of the grade 10 boys seems to be developing a crush on me; no doubt about it! It's an occupational hazard which happens fairly often to me. It's sweet and somewhat flattering but I take care to keep my distance in these situations.
- My gr. 12 class is made up entirely of young men, ages 17 and 18. I always find students who are young men much easier to deal with than young women; they're generally happier, less manipulative, complain less and are on much less of an emotional roller coaster.
- Many of my grade 12 students are of the hunka-hunka-burning-love variety. In fact, they remind me of the 22 year old men who I routinely hook up with. Yikes! Professional boundaries!! It's a worrisome thought which would never have occurred to me three years ago, before I came out to myself. But I will never do anything inappropriate with a student.
- I've had a sudden upswing in messages this week on pof.com from 'straight' guys thinking they might have a M2M attraction. The men are 21, 23, 35 and two who are 25, all of whom claim to have no experience with men. One is engaged and another is living with his girlfriend. It must be something in the water. Given that I'm not sure where my dating relationship is going at the moment, I'm considering these offers seriously.
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I worked in a high school (public) for 5 years. I already knew professional boundaries from scouting, but at times, as you mention, it was tough. Especially when you know one or two are gay.
ReplyDeleteAs to the crush. I've dealt with those, too, but an interesting take on it was brought to light during some training I took to work with LGBTQ youth a couple of weeks ago. The suggestion, if it ever got to the point where you had to do something about it, was to compare ages, and how could an "old man" (or woman) like me have anything really in common with a young person? Not to mention the inability to "keep up", etc. etc. I thought that was a great way to explain to a younger person why a relationship would never work rather than just throwing up the whole "professional boundary wall". It redirects the person towards others their own age and doesn't leave them pining after you, since they (hopefully) realize that you're right, and they'd be much better off with someone like them.
Peace <3
Jay
Thanks, Jay, for the excellent advice! In this case, the crush won't amount to much and won't persist beyond this semester, in my experience. Since the student sees me for only 75 minutes a day in a very large class, there's no chance it will get out of hand.
ReplyDeleteThe real problems occur when a teacher and student are together for longer periods of time in looser situations such as when coaching a team or supervising a Scout camping trip.