I was born and raised in Miami, Florida.
From 6th to 12th grade, one of our teachers was gay. We all sort of assumed it, but no one knew for sure.
A few years after I graduated, we discovered how gay he was.
There was a local scandal because a student found a picture of him on a gay fetish message board under a pseudonym.
The man taught at that school for over a decade and nobody knew what he was upto.
He was a great teacher and a nice guy.
We students didn’t know anything about his private life, which turned out to be rather spicy.
This was 20 years ago when teachers didn’t tell their students about what sort of things they got into in their private lives.
So it’s perfectly possible for a gay teacher to built a rapport with students and for the students to know nothing about the teacher’s sex life.
The teachers who say that’s not possible are lying.
I know from first hand experience.
It depends on whether they are a teacher that happens to be gay, or a gay that happens to be a teacher.
I grew up in the country. Small school, small classes, very conservative.
We had some teachers that everyone suspected were gay. Heck, even worse we had some teachers that everyone suspected were democrats.
But back then the teachers were expected to educate us and leave their sexual proclivities and political beliefs at home.
In school we learned how to do math, how to read and write, what happened in the past that brought is to this point (both the good and the bad). Optionally we could learn how to play a musical instrument or sing in a choir, how to type, how to sew, how to cook, how to make a birdhouse, how to change the starter on a car. Our political, religious and sexual education was left up to our parents.
And we didn’t even realize how horrifically mistreated we were.
There were several gay teachers at our High School. One was a Lesbian that taught advanced English (we strongly suspected her orientation at the time). There were at least two I never suspected. One was the German Teacher. The only reason I know is my out gay HS friend (who was banging HS Girls left and right in 11th and 12th) was hit on by him at a gay bar a decade later). The third was the Chemistry, Photography, and Physics teacher, that mentored a lot of us to pursue Science and Engineering degrees. We never had a clue. Those were the ones I know about, there were probably others that kept it in the closet too.
THATS the way it used to be. No one cared unless you got fruity with the kids.. then it was on, dads had a polite conversation with said teacher and shiite stopped or they got a job somewhere else..
JK, I also grew up in Miami what parts were you? I was in the gables, then weschester then unincorporated dade.
First the Gables then Pinecrest. My stomping ground was US1 from Bird Road to Cutler Bay.
Cool, I lived in Cutler Bay after I got married, from 78 through 2007. I’m a bit older so our paths in school at least would not have crossed. Tell me Andrew was not a bitch of a time in 92.
There was a suspected gay female phys ed teacher at my school.
Yup. She was
I don’t recall any teacher from elementary through high school ever discussing what they did on the weekend with their students. I recently found out my high school english teacher was a lesbian living with another woman. No rumors or snide comments, no nothing. Admittedly, I was in high school 50 some years ago in a smallish conservative town, but it just wasn’t a thing.
“I know from first hand experience.”
Phrasing. 8>)
Admittedly I grew up in a rather sheltered world and it was in Holland in the 1960s, but when I was in elementary and high school, “sexual orientation” wasn’t even a concept I had heard of, by any name.
In college (1970s) I remember one prof who might have been gay, but I never knew even after he let me use a spare room in his house for the summer break.
Come to think of it, the same goes for my family. One of my aunts may have been gay — she was unmarried and was close friends with a lady a few floors down in her high rise apartment building who was also unmarried — but I didn’t know of the question until I was an adult and still don’t know the answer. I wonder if my sisters do…
I only knew about the personal life of any of my teachers when I hit on my second-grade teacher, and she told me she was flattered but she was married, and her husband wouldn’t like that very much. I NEVER decided to ask my teacher what they did over the weekend, especially in the early years. Never really knew what gay was until around 7th grade or so. Sure, we had teachers everyone ‘knew’ was gay (turns out all but one of them was) but they taught what they were supposed to. I got thru high school and had good teacher-student relationships with several teachers, all without them having to tell me about their spouses or partners.
You hit on your teacher in second grade? Talk about precocious! 🙂
Apparently, I asked her to marry me. My
mother worked in the office and the teacher told her that afterwards, and mom keeps bringing it back up, which is the only reason I remember it.