Weaver, Tyler A

English

ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University

Tweaver Successful teaching is an art form that requires a special kind of artist--one with a passion, a drive, and a zest for educating. This type of artistry must be honed and shaped with many different considerations according to the state, the system, the school, the classroom, and ultimately the students involved. That being said, someone who possesses this ambition and the innumerable skills required for success in this field should not be threatened, scrutinized, or denied the opportunity to teach.  Does this truth change at all if this individual is male, or homosexual? We live in a society so progressive that we have elected an African American president, built cars that can park themselves, and sent people to outer space. When it comes to men who want to teach small children, however, the general misconceptions are that they do not know how, or that they are perverts with sickening alternative agendas. These lines of thought are backwards, discriminatory, and entirely unfair. I have found no evidence that suggests a homosexual teacher might harm a child in any way. However, males in the field of education--early childhood education in particular--have had a stigma attached to them since the early twentieth century when teaching became engendered as a female occupation.  In this essay, I will discuss this stigma, its history, its effects, and how we are combating it as a progressive nation in the year 2013. I will analyze this information, but then also bring it to a more personal level as I speak about being a homosexual male who plans to go into the field of early childhood education.    

Our Stake in the Lives of Today’s Youth: Homosexual Men in the Field of Education

Georgia State University

Tweaver 
Successful teaching is an art form that requires a special kind of artist--one with a passion, a 
drive, and a zest for educating. This type of artistry must be honed and shaped with many 
different considerations according to the state, the system, the school, the classroom, and 
ultimately the students involved. That being said, someone who possesses this ambition and the 
innumerable skills required for success in this field should not be threatened, scrutinized, or 
denied the opportunity to teach.  
Does this truth change at all if this individual is male, or homosexual? We live in a society so 
progressive that we have elected an African American president, built cars that can park 
themselves, and sent people to outer space. When it comes to men who want to teach small 
children, however, the general misconceptions are that they do not know how, or that they are 
perverts with sickening alternative agendas. These lines of thought are backwards, 
discriminatory, and entirely unfair. I have found no evidence that suggests a homosexual teacher 
might harm a child in any way. However, males in the field of education--early childhood 
education in particular--have had a stigma attached to them since the early twentieth century 
when teaching became engendered as a female occupation.  
In this essay, I will discuss this stigma, its history, its effects, and how we are combating it as a 
progressive nation in the year 2013. I will analyze this information, but then also bring it to a 
more personal level as I speak about being a homosexual male who plans to go into the field of 
early childhood education.  
 
 


https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1142&amp;context=gsurc

Our Stake in the Lives of Today’s Youth: Homosexual Men in the Field of Education

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Georgia State University