Page 16 - Revista

ELITETEACHERS

CONFESSIONS

Last month I was teaching the different layers of our bodies to my students. I
explained we have muscles and bones. When I mentioned we had a skeleton,
one student freaked out at such fact. I tried to explain everything it in the best way
I could and another student mentioned that our skeleton must look like the one
displayed in the laboratory room of the school. Suddenly, the first student, the one
who was impressed exclaimed: “Oh! Yes! I remember now! That’s Miss Holmes
father!”. To my surprise, the other students agreed with him and most of them
exclaimed: “Yes! That’s right! Miss Holmes father!”. It took me 20 minutes to
convince them that could not possible be anybody’s father. I even told them where
they can be bought, but together with their disgust faces, one student said: “Why
would be want to have the skeleton of Miss Holmes’s father at home?” I was
about to give up when the most quiet student in the class convinced her

classmates by saying: “Don’t you think, that if that was Miss Holmes father, it
would smell really bad? Think about it”. She convinced her classmates with just
that statement. I felt knocked down.

Last week, the most embarrassing thing happened to me. I was teaching my 14th
year old students when I noticed smiley faces in some of them. Since I was
explaining the Pythagorean Theorem, I knew that the giggles were not because of
what I was saying. Thus, I turned around and I saw one of my students doing
obscene gestures pointing at me and trying to mimic having big breasts. I got so
mad and embarrassed at the same time, that I could only yell at him and take him
to the principal’s office. Of course, he got a misbehavior report, but I felt as if that
student would not respect me and, although he was ashamed as apologized to

15 me, I felt awful as I realize my male co-workers would never have to face such
situation. Is there gender discrimination from male students to female teachers?
NOVEMBER 2019 | ISSUE 05
Food for thought.