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Wednesday, April 26, 2006 12:00 AM

Thou revealest too much!

Our church group teaches the facts of life to 13-year-olds. One of us goes way over the line.

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  • Tuesday, April 25, 2006 06:54 PM

    Why not just address concerns directly with the teacher?

    The LW seems to think she has the the right to complain, gossip and slander without ever taking respsonsibility for addressing her concerns in a mature, adult way -- that is, by taking up the subject in a nonconfrontational way with the teacher in question. I'm not sure to what degree the students a) are being victimized or made to feel uncomfortable by teacher the behavior the LW describes and/or b) losing out on a good sex education - the LW's anecdoes don't really support that either of these things are happening rather, the LW's anecdotes suppport that *she* is uncomfortable, and another colleage apparently agrees with her (though not to the point where he soliciited the LW's ideas on how to address the situation - so perhaps he was just agreeing ot be nice, and sees no imminent danger).

    What is it with people who make serious accusations - so often they don't want to face the person they are accusing, but wish instead to hide behind authority figures, committes, a system. For heaven's sake, the LW is basically complaining that this teacher is immature; but the LW's method for dealing with this - talk to all the other teachers, talk to the committee....in effect, *tattle* rather than simply talk to the teacher herself - is just as immature.

    It doesn't have to be a confrontation. She can ask to get togethe with all of the teachers to have a monthly rap session appraising what teaching techniques seem to be most effective with the kids. There are many ways to introduce the subject of the appropriate use of personal experience - for example,it would be easy enough to find a text or expert supporting the notion that children have fewer conceptions of appropriate boundaries than do adults, and so therefore adults in mentoring positions should probably avoid discussing their personal life in what might be perceived as a titillating manner...that it would be best to make points using anecdotes featuring similarly aged children from, say, well-known tv shows, movies and books.

    What the LW is proposing - going around and getting a quorum to agree w/ her complaint and then censure the teacher - is unnecessarily destructive and is sure to fan the flames of defensiveness and resentment. Surely these more formal measures should be reserved for when discussions, suggestions, admonitions and criticisms have failed.

    This is not unlike the LW a few weeks ago who chose to email her cube mate about her phone conversations, then escalated by going to HR and management -- without ever once sitting down and just *talking* about the perceived issue. There is more than a touch of the self-righteous in this approach - as if being offended justifies character assassination over simple discourse.

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