What do you think of the teacher?

There shouldn’t be an apology, all she did was tell her students a fact about herself. It is not as if she is forcing them to become gay or lesbian.

Why did she tell them?

I don’t see anything at all wrong or apology worthy about her sharing. It is what it is. One interesting aside….she anticipated the question because it comes up every year during the sexuality unit. Smart kids.

Big deal…so what…let’s move on….

Wait, she got clearance from the same person apologizing for her. I don’t get it.

I kinda have a problem with that. Why did she need to tell them? Was there a point? This is the first I’ve heard of this, so I don’t know any details but I don’t see the importance of the students knowing. Its against the law for her to come on to a student because of the whole age thing, so why do they need to know her preference?I do feel the principal is to blame also if he was asked and allowed her to tell them.

Seriously, why did she tell the students? A teachers sexuality (or anything personal) is not the business of his/her students.

Her personal life, whether she is gay or straight, Christian or not should be kept out of the classroom. Knowing about your teacher’s sexual preference is not what we pay taxes for.

The story is on Fox mobile. I have no clue how to link it, but it’s there. Students ask all kinds of crazy questions (especially middle school kids) and she was probably tired of having to keep quiet every year when the question was asked. It would seem that to her answering that question honestly is the same as me answering a question about whether I have children.

What was the apology for exactly? For being gay? No apology needed, paranoid principal.

The apology was for the principal giving the teacher the go ahead to share with the students, it wasn’t appropriate blah blah error in judgement whatever whatever.

Good. For that, he should apologize. The students have no reason to know any teachers preference, gay or straight.

Kids go to school for an education. Not to learn about their (of age) teachers preferences.

I teach classes to adults as a part time job at my local University and I never tell my students about my wife, sex life, religious beliefs or much anything personal. Middle school students definitely don’t need to know that their teacher is a lesbian. Why did she belive they “needed” to know.

Your sexual preference should not be discussed at school. The teacher should be fired. Just teach the damn class with the damn material and shut the hell up about your personal life. seriously…

I just think this is sad that it actually made it to the news.

I mean really who cares what the sexual preference is of the teacher?

This is a human growth and development class right? I’m going to assume this is synonymous with sex-ed. In that case I can see why telling her students this information was relevant. For some who are gay, how society reacts to their preference is a huge part of their ‘human social development,’ is it not? Perhaps some of the kids in her class fall into this category, perhaps not. I think all have the potetential to learn from this experience by meeting a successful adult, first-hand, who is of what is most likely a minority in sexual orientation.

One example comes to mind. A few years back there as a very avant-garde sex class i was in at Berkeley that was all over the news for something not too unrelated. The class was called a ‘D-Cal’ class which basically means that it’s taught democratically, by fellow students. When some parents got wind of the fact that their kids were handling dildos and being taken to strip clubs for field trips they freaked, and then came the news cameras. The facilitator in this class was also openly gay. The idea behind all this was to inform kids on these issues. It was not about orgies and fostering erotic behavior, but to let people ask questions and experience these issues first hand. I remember we had a guest speaker one day who was actually one of the first successful woman-to-man transsexuals. Prior to this I had never met or spoken with someone like this. I brevity’s sake I will just say in was enlightening and changed my outlook. Yes, this was also college, but I can see what I think is a possible good reason for her actions.

I haven’t read this article but this was my class.
http://www.academia.org/campus_reports/2002/march_2002_1.html

It doesn’t matter to me the sexual orientation of my sons’ teachers. And, if that were my teacher, I would never have gotten mad at her for sharing that. But I do believe that what she should have answered was, “My sexual orientation is my own and you knowing it is not going to affect the basic premise of what you are learning today. Everyone is different and will have different experiences in life and this class is to give you the basic understanding so that you may safely find your own way through this emotional time of becoming an adult.” Or something like that.

I remember always being so curious about my teachers’ personal lives. I sensed then that good teaching came from the whole person, not just from “sticking to the subject.”

If I had this lesbian teacher, I would have felt so grateful for her courage, and totally open to learning the subject from her.

It’s impossible to tell without more information. I doubt she just thought one day “hey ya know i think I will tell my students im a lesbian”. It was probably the result of whatever situation she encountered with the students, whether it be students seeing her in an out of school environment and starting rumors or something like that.