It's happened again. Being a male educator, it comes up every once in awhile. The "jokes" about being a creeper, the allusions to pedophilia. Fuck you.
I may delete this in the morning because I'm so pissed off right now, but I couldn't help my response...
My heart is to help. My heart is to educate. I've progressed in this field with nothing. No college education, being from the wrong side of the tracks, almost failing out of high school and I've still pursued helping those with the most need. I haven't done it to make money.
I look at teachers like you and others who had normal career paths. At the risk of regretfully sounding like a classist (I am not), I see how you got put into college right out of high school (paid for by your familes) and got jobs when you were done, right into educating kids. I didn't go that route. I couldn't. I didn't have the money or the resources.
I got into it because I really, really wanted to help. I spent 10 years helping and mentoring kids. I got a 2-hour a day job in the school office trying to prove myself worthy. And finally... now I get to help a kid: one fifth grader. And it's everything to me. People like you wouldn't do this if you weren't getting paid.
I've done this at my expense. I've taken real risks. I've volunteered, accepted my losses, and never complained while people like you bellyache about how much your assistants suck, how big your classrooms are, and how your unions are failing you.
Even while I was stealing food to survive, I took "scholarship" kids to teach, often for free. This is my passion. To have it thrown in my face that I must be some sort of predator? When I've given so much? More than most of the teachers I've met who complain about bullshit? Fuck you and fuck them.
I've worked with kids through sexual assault and drug addiction, driven kids to counselors, gone to their homes to help with homework when they were failing school, REALLY been there for kids who's parents weren't around, invested my time and my experiences into children in ways that people like you and those who "wonder about my motivations" would NEVER do.
As an atheist, I volunteered for months to work with a Christian worship music group. Not because I believed in their ideals, obviously, but because I could help them reach THEIR goals. Not mine. I prayed with those people, respected their perspective, and gave them as much help as I was able. I'm still appreciated in their circle because of the couple of them that seem to understand what I did for them. Those people don't doubt my motivations or joke around about me being a fucking predator.
I've sat with kids, crying with them through problems. I've made sure that wacky students getting drunk at a party had food to sober them up. I've been there to pick up students who ran away because their parents were abusive. WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE?
All of you pretentious, pious teachers can go fuck yourselves. Try living in a studio with no hot water, no kitchen, and no shower while pursuing your passion for education. Have students' families pay you in groceries because you refused to accept money from them even while you couldn't afford necessities.
You and any other teachers who may wonder about my motivations for teaching can all eat shit and kick rocks.