Yes, I'm a male child care teacher...

[Melicious Motormouth]

I wish this had been the end, but at one point I got investigated by SRS on a trumped up charge. The mother was one of those who did not like having a male teacher around her daughter. Of course, SRS found nothing and the parent pulled her daughter. I couldn't take it and quit shortly after that.

Oh, for Christ's sake. I agree with Sandman - I would've sued that bitch's ass. If she was uncomfortable she should have went to another day care centre. I'm sorry you had to go through that.

[Seshat]

There's a woman I recognize as a parent. I give a friendly wave and she scowls at me. I shrug and watch the kids more. Another parent joins her and they start whispering, throwing me dirty looks. I keep monitoring the kids. More parents show up. This time, they're not whispering, per se. I heard phrases like: "Why is he here?" or "Why is he a teacher?". One of them even said, "Probably a pedophile."

But I had to call the whole thing off when one kid told me his parents were wondering what a 20 year-old was doing hanging around with a bunch of 14 year-olds. Actually, I could have answered that, it was when that same kid's father started saying I must be a pedophile.

And people wonder why I'm afraid to be near kids now.

And this is why my brother didn't go into early child development/care; and the world lost a great teacher. (Okay, he's teaching other stuff. But still.)

A different relative actually did get accused, and it could have gotten really bad had the accusation not been withdrawn.

My brother does the Santa/Easter Bunny thing for his local church, and always has an escort when he does it. For his protection.

It makes me both sad and angry. Really, REALLY angry.

[Pedersen]

There's an ugly aspect to this that could easily spill over to Fratching. I made a thread a long time ago for it, but it's still open.

If your comments go into Fratching territory, please post them. Here's my thread.

[blas]

I guess parents like that conveniently change the channel when they watch the news and hear about female teachers like Mary Kay Letourneau and Debra LeFavre.

[NightWatch]

I guess parents like that conveniently change the channel when they watch the news and hear about female teachers like Mary Kay Letourneau and Debra LeFavre.

No, I just think it's another one of those double standards things. I don't wanna get in trouble, so I'll leave it at that. But I'm sure you know what I mean.

[Buglady]

they would pretty much turn us loose, and make sure there was someone at every station we might go to to make sure we didn't hurt ourselves doing something stupid. Hell, there weren't even councilors on the trails we were expected to walk between stations, and some of them were miles long, and we were required to carry knives with us at all times.

Hell, those of us who used our free time to whittle tree branches into spears were praised for our ingenuity, and told we'd go far. Can you tell I loved scout camp? If I'd had any friends who didn't leave the troop before I did I would've stayed in for my eagle.

That's what Girl Guide camps used to be like. We 'd run pretty much wild (the adults cynically realized no self-respecting bear or cougar would stay within earshot!) and we learned to be totally self-sufficient and self-confident. I did earn my Canada Cord, the Guiding equivalent of Eagle Scout.

Now I'm a Guider (leader) and I'm becoming pretty disillusioned. We have to have police checks renewed every 4 years, we can't have ANY adult alone with ANY girl under ANY circumstances, and the insurance paperwork we have to fill out for camps is beyond rational belief. Forget running around in the woods with a Swiss Army Knife - we're not even supposed to let them have FORKS at camp. (OK, slight exaggeration, but good GOD I have never seen such an overprotective bunch of sissy parents in my life. And the Guide administration is just as bad, frantically rushing around to prevent the merest hint of possible legal culpability).

[RetailWorkhorse]

*Snugs Nurian*

I loved my male teacher, the only one I had, because he was left-handed and didn't mind trying to reteach me to write with my left hand (Born lefty, both parents are leftys, but all my teachers were right-handed so they fucked my handwriting up).

But us men are poor, single-minded members of the ungulate family who can barely vocalize our burning desires for our penultimate goal in life: sex. Why would we seek employment in child-care, if not to sex them up?

Dammit, Fox One, I snorted cola so hard my nose was bubbling!

[Nyoibo]

And it's things like that that remind me how truly delightful children can be.

Hence the reason for wanting to teach them at that age, they're so much fun.

I always wondered what parents thought on their visiting days when I was a camp counselor, I had a really good friend who was in one of the junior girls bunks, so I'd be around there every now and then to talk to her, I remember one day as parents were coming past on a tour I had something like 7 little girls hanging off me to "stop me taking their favorite counselor" I had the most fun with the little kids because they're so full of wonder and aren't cynical yet. I pety all the people who always see pedophile and danger to kids everywhere, be vigilant yes, but not paranoid.

I now really miss the kids from camp.

[Shards]

When I was ACing at camp, there were five year olds who were already quite cynical. I think it depends on who raises you. I know my folks tried to keep me pretty optimistic, but I became deeply mistrusting over the years for some reason. When I was six, though, I was just as happy and open as can be.

Funny thing is, I looked at those parents whose kids were world weary at 5, even at 15/16 (My birthday was during the time I spent working there) and already had a feeling that that was the kind of parent I was going to be: One who taught their kid early to guard themself. That way, I don't have to be paranoid someone's going to ruin their innocence. I've worked with the kids who were jaded early, and I wouldn't have been surprised if they recognized a pedophile attempting to woo (I use for lack of a better word), them, and punched him below the belt and ran.

[Igorina]

This post has made me curious as whether the male assistant instructors, and the head instructors at the dojaeng have had any problems with this.

Unless parents expect martial arts instructors to be male, and so don't ascribe darker motives to their interactions with kids?

[Wingates_Hellsing]

I took a job loast summer teaching middle school students how to use Flash animation, one of only two people available to do so. But to work for the county, I had to jump through a ridiculous number of hoops, backround checks, etc.

And there was still one parent convinced I was a satanist, and another that was convinced all of the career-based help (usually 16-17 like me, as we had taken those classes the previous year) were all pedophiles the moment they discovered there were more of us than 'real teachers'.

Seriously, not only were the kids much older, some of them as old as myself, but they were told that we were there specifically because we had the skillset to teach. Not one of us requested the job, either.

There were three, that's right only three!, female 'helpers' out of a couple dozen overall...

[protege]

Protege, your boss's idea makes. no. sense.

What can I say, other than the camp director was a moron

Of course, this is a guy who had the entire water treatment system, and most of the piping scrapped the summer before. Why? Well, rather than let it run a few minutes to get the rusty water out...he decided the system was crap, and ordered it replaced. Let me tell you, it wasn't cheap. The containment building alone cost more than my house

Then there was the elaborate wrought-iron gate at one of the other camps. Keep in mind that the gate had been *donated* to the camp by a wealthy individual. Made at a huge cost, I'm sure. Anyway, camp director had it scrapped. Why? Apparently, it was cheaper to scrap it, rather than repaint it every year. Never mind that when the donor found out...not only was he pissed, but he refused to give further donations. Way to shoot yourself in the foot, bossman!

Anyway, what gets me about the whole "oh noez, pedophile!" movement, is they forget about all the *female* teachers who have had sex with their students

[QASlave]

Good practice for the whole parenting thing... that and running barefoot over a field of Lego pieces..

Yep. I have have wood floors in my house too. No 'give' like on carpet.

[Nyoibo]

Yep. I have have wood floors in my house too. No 'give' like on carpet.

And the lego pieces on the wood floor make you slide like you're on ice skates.

No, I know nothing about loge skating.

[Drakstern]

In the words of Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip...

Thou shalt not think that any man over the age of 30 who plays with a child that is not their own is a paedophile.
Some people are just nice.

I like 'Thou Shalt Always Kill' far too much.