Lee Culpepper
Every time a female-teacher-sex scandal breaks, I wonder if I’m the only person curious to see what the teacher looks like. These ravaging women often evoke references to Van Halen’s song “Hot for Teacher.” The story is not that attractive-female deviants are less guilty than the unattractive-female weirdos molesting schoolboys; it’s just that attractive female perverts ignite more debate whether their schoolboy targets have suffered any harm. Apparently, discussing ugly-female molesters traumatizes the debaters.
Despite these disturbed-female teachers being socially retarded, convincing an average adolescent boy to have sex with a pretty and older woman requires minimal social dexterity. Whether you think it’s the female teachers or their schoolboy lovers who have “scored,” the debate centers over the effects on the boys. Are the boys left psychologically devastated? Hopefully not, but lustful encounters in general leave reasonably moral people feeling emotionally empty. But that’s a topic for another day.
What doesn’t receive enough attention is the effect these teachers have on how the boys view women. Neither is much attention given to the effect these tutoring tarts have on how the boys view daughters — whose fathers might initially find the raunchy details of these classroom floozies’ tantalizing (until Dad remembers how such boys will view Dad’s daughter). Why wouldn’t these sexual experiences tarnish young males’ respect for women? These lecherous-female teachers certainly taint the boys’ perception of other women in society — particularly females with leadership responsibilities.
Leaders have an obligation to develop the mental and moral welfare of those they lead. “Boning” subordinates doesn’t adhere to this responsibility for males or females. Most males see uncommitted sexual encounters as conquests. For a female teacher to allow herself to be degraded by a pimple-farming-teenage kid is flat out nauseating. When a female teacher allows an adolescent to sexually violate her, what message do these kids learn regarding women authority figures? Respect? Honor? Please.
By it’s very nature, sex is an experience when a woman makes herself vulnerable to a man. Maybe some women like to believe the sexual revolution changed that fact, but news coverage of these scandals and male-locker-room chatter begs to differ.
Gossip isn’t confined to the locker room though. Every teacher has overheard students discussing other teachers. We know by these conversations which teachers students respect and which teachers they don’t. Overhearing one such discussion, I didn’t find that the conversation of an attractive-female teacher dancing provocatively for her class demonstrated respect for that teacher, but what do I know? However, the same teacher complaining to administration because she felt sexually harassed by one of her students might be a clue that I know more than I thought I knew.
Most teachers could probably tell you a story of a student who did not appreciate boundaries and wanted to be the teacher’s friend. Some of these students can be incredibly obnoxious in their efforts to occupy a teacher’s time. I bet other teachers – unlike the classroom trollops in question — can relate to barricading themselves inside their classrooms to escape obstinate students determined to establish a friendship. Locking the door is generally the last resort after candid clarity fails to deter those teenagers.
Regrettably, some teachers obscure boundaries, too, but most don’t molest their friends (err students). Being friendly and being friends are entirely different, but some teachers feel a need to be popular – just like their students (err friends).
Students do need a teacher’s cheerful attention, but teachers must establish clear boundaries. It’s a constant challenge because the more a student gets to know a teacher, the more comfortable the student becomes. Meaningful leadership training would help a lot of teachers because leaders understand boundaries – proven leaders don’t worry about popularity. Leaders also teach those they lead to respect set boundaries. Unfortunately, a chain of meaningful leadership doesn’t exist in public education, and selling its necessity in that environment presents a daunting task.
The problem isn’t just at school though. Parents also contribute to the problem when they suggest they are their child’s best friends. They should focus on parenting and encourage their child to find a best friend about the same age.
Having best friends about our own age isn’t bad advice for most of us. It’s certainly not bad for those blackboard bimbos. It’s not bad for the boys they target either. In fact, it’s not bad for teenage girls, as well. It might not be advice to sell another Van Halen song, but it’s advice that’s not likely to hurt a woman’s image.
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Lee Culpepper is currently writing his first book, Alone and Unafraid: One Marine’s Counterattack Inside the Walls of Public Education. Additionally, he is a contributing columnist for The Publius’ Forum, The North Carolina Conservative, and The Hinzsight Report.
A 1991 graduate of Virginia Tech, Culpepper majored in both English and Communication. He was also a varsity wrestler. He attended the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia, and received his commission in 1993. He served four years on active duty before settling in southern California to begin his teaching career. He taught high school English in both California and Texas. He recently moved to eastern North Carolina with his wife, Heather, and their bulldog, Shrek.
Lee can be reached at drcoolpepper@yahoo.com.
Visit Lee’s blog at http://wlculpepper.townhall.com/