I've often wondered about this. I'll put it here because it's probably relevant to someone who has been in the workforce long enough to assess this, and thus "older." I'm not an educator, but I liked almost all of my teachers and professors. The few I didn't make for some funny and not-so-funny stories. Now that Facebook is here and there are pages devoted to high schools and colleges, I've wondered if there are divisions on a high school's teaching staff. Let me explain. Do the male sports coaches, who might also teach classes, and traditionally have had a macho facade to uphold interact with or keep some distance from the male teachers whose subject areas are the arts, music, and literature, among others, some of whom seem like 180s from the coach types? Looking back, and at Facebook, it seems like the coaches continue to be revered and the teachers of subjects like the ones mentioned above are hardly mentioned or, if they are, some of them are mentioned for eccentricities. For any of you who know the school and educational system, is there a predictable divide, is it almost always civil, or is it truly a mixed bag?
I live in Europe and in my country at least, there is not that "coach thing", we have not such a higly competitive sports world, therefore no coach. Teachers from subjects you mentioned above are not revered per say but are taken into highly consideration. Although my country has been making cuts in what culture is related, people here respect it and do understand that culture is the base of any society.
Hi Tightrope, I've been a high school teacher for many years. And the best I can say is that it really depends on the school you're in and the particular people at the school at the time. I know--a wishy-washy answer, but that's been my experience. Overall, though, my experience has been that all faculty mix with each other unless there are personality differences. For example, at my one school, there was one gym teacher who was super macho, super pumped--a real man's man. I couldn't stand him (although, I know you're asking about men). I didn't mix with him because he was a coach, but because I disagreed with how he treated students and his ultra-conservative world view. But--I know he interacted with our drama teacher, who while not stereotypically effeminate or gay, was certainly not the macho type. I wouldn't go so far as to say they were friends, but they had friendly conversations over lunch. Also, at the same school, we had another really buff (and by the way, really handsome--hey, I know beauty when I see it) guy. I thought the world of him. He went out of his way to be friendly to all types of students and teachers. I remember one time, we had the students out on a service trip, and he and I had a group of students at lunch. This teacher made it a point to ask all students about their interests in a way that showed true interest--including an effeminate young man whose hobby was ballroom dancing. So it just depends. I think the idea of cliques among high school teachers is exaggerated. Good teachers interact with one other in order to serve the students. Hope that helped. -Zoe
I was a sixth grade teacher until about two years ago. The coaches/gym teachers got away with sexually harassing girls, talking on their cell phones during class, being abusive, bullying, etc., but when I called them on this to our principal I was the one who got in trouble for allegedly bullying a student (which I DID NOT do). Yes, even at that level (intermediate school) there was and is a double standard. It's one of the very few things I am furious about in my life.
I'm not very old or a teacher but I was a student for twelve years and I spent six of those in a high school, so I think I've seen plenty of the way teachers behave. Mostly, from what I saw, teachers used to be friends with those around their own age, rather than based on their subjects. There was another dividing factor, but not that huge, it was just some of the classes, like PE, biology/chemistry or computer classes were taught in a different part of the school with their own labs/classrooms and those teachers had their own staff rooms so they wouldn't have to deal with sweaty people or people smelling of chemicals from experiments in the main staffroom, and the computer labs were just too far away from the main staffroom to walk there during every recess. I don't think I've ever seen teachers from groups based on their subjects. And most of them were friendly with each other, those who weren't even civil to others was because they were :***:. Like one of my teachers made the whole class stand for the duration of our first lesson because someone looked.. happy.:roflmao: He really was like Professor Snape from Harry Potter, but only in personality. We had another teacher that actually had a uncanny resemblance, in both looks and the way he walked to Prof. Snape.:lol: The first one was hated by every student he taught. In exams, he marked even those who were absent and despite being able to prove they were genuinely ill.:lol: And then my head of year always erased those marks because she felt he was being unfair... He always held the doors open to the other teachers, except her. When he saw her coming, he shut the door in her face, every single time.:roflmao: I have so many great memories from high school... Some teachers could get away with innuendo, some couldn't, but these are related to student-teacher relationships rather than teacher-teacher so I'll stop now. Sorry it's so long.
Thank you for all the honest answers. I'm glad I got some responses. In some ways, I assumed that teaching in the school system might reflect a caste system or pecking order carried on from high school since one is thrust back into that very environment. Yes, Fellow and Evora, I know that a lot of the traditions, organizations, athletics, and milestones which divide people as much as they unite them are not in evidence in high schools and colleges in Europe, but that teachers there might have more of a problem with innuendos and it may not be easily disciplined. Thanks, Zoe, so your experience points to the mixed bag. And, Biotech, I've heard that teaching might be pursued as a labor of love, but that individual schools can be highly political. One would think people would be so busy teaching, grading, and planning lessons that the politics would be low-key. Another thing is something that's always on the news. I don't know which direction this is going. There has been talk of putting surveillance in the classrooms. This sounds like an invasion of privacy. However, we hear of all these allegations on the news of teachers accused of liaisons with students. Sometimes, they are real and sometimes not. In a way, the cameras might dissuade this behavior (but it could be pushed out to the parking lot), if it's true, there would be evidence, and if it's not true, the teacher who was the subject of a crush gone overboard would be spared. Even teaching has its occupational hazards.
Your question was probably about American schools and I didn't want to write anything else in this thread but I couldn't stop myself. Sorry. I just wanted to say, that to me, school seemed like a lot of things but political, it was not. Maybe it's a completely different system over there?:icon_conf
No, that's fine. From what I know, the European system is different in many ways. By political, I meant that there is sometimes an "in group" and a "renegade/not popular group" among the faculty members. American universities are political hubbubs and sometimes tough places to navigate employment as a professor. It's like that whenever you get different people together. I don't like TV, but there used be a show I'd actually watch and it was called "Boston Public," which dealt with all these dynamics of teaching in an urban public Boston school, such as bickering or romance between teachers, teachers having to handle unusual situations in the classroom, and students who had their own dynamics, either with each other or at home. Every episode was interesting and even deep. That's why I didn't watch a lot of the sitcoms, except maybe "Seinfeld."
