WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK ABOUT THIS??

A message from an old friend. I have a couple of responses for her, but I want input from other people too...
:


"Hiya!!! I know you're into feminist things, so I thought I'd tell you about the situation I'm in now. I'm student teaching at a middle/high school near my college. I have 2 cooperating teachers I work with. Both are male, one is at least in his 50s, and the other is about 35. My first issues began with the older co-op - he was rude to me from the start, talked down to me in front of students, and has treated me more as a secretary than a student teacher.

As the weeks passed, the situation has only improved as the older co-op began to ignore me and spend his days sleeping or doing grad work (he's working on his doctorate) in his office while I teach his 6 classes every day (I'm a bit ticked, because he gets his regular salary plus a bonus of several hundred dollars to "assist" me while I teach. Hah.)

I also became more and more frustrated with my younger co-op. He started making comments to me like "no offense, but you're such an ineffective teacher I don't want to leave you alone with my students" and "I'm so glad I have a personal secretary this year!!" while giving me ONLY NEGATIVE feedback after observing my lessons. Negative to the point that I begged my LVC supervisor to come and observe me because I was getting so down about everything. The first thing my supervisor said to me after middle school band rehearsal was that he'd be happy to write me a recommendation to get my masters in conducting at UF (his alma mater) and that I should really consider pursuing conducting - this is after my co-op told me that I have incredibly limited skills and am a weak conductor and teacher!

There have been several other incidents, and he snaps at me in front of students as well. I come home from school (I don't leave for at least an hour after my co-ops leave) and cry because this is all I've wanted to do for the past four years and they make me feel like a failure.

Finally, I got in touch with the guy that student taught with these guys LAST year. Our experiences have been completely identical, with the exception that my co-ops used to belittle women after school when the three of them were alone. At one point, the younger co-op remarked that women shouldn't be band directors, that they should stick to elementary music, because they're just not as good as men are.

I guess my point is...I have rarely encountered this kind of thinking that has actually affected me up until this point in my life. I honestly believe that he has no respect for me and does not think I'm capable, largely because of my gender. I believe that most women in our generation are AWARE of this discrimination...but I know that I have tended to forget that it's still here and still affects us. Anywho, just one of those eye-opening situations and I'd like to hear your opinion on the subject because I know you have more background on it. I've accepted that this is just the situation I'm in, and I'm hoping it's going to just get through it without any permanent damage, haha. Hope you're doing well."




endpost.