Sex and Freshmen The past three class periods have been dedicated to discussions of gender expectations and sexual orientation. Now, I'm totally fine with this stuff, and I don't mind talking about it in a college level class, but I was a little surprised to hear some of the students saying things like "I think high school students need to hear this."

Which, on its surface, is entirely true. Your average 17 year old certainly does need to hear about sexual orientation and gender expectations and that Othering someone because of those things is simply unacceptable. What I have a problem with is me being the one addressing it. I'm an English teacher. Unless we're talking about a text, I have no business discussing these things with high school students. Not to mention the fact that in the current political climate in education (see, for example, the discourse surrounding the Intelligent Design hooey), any teacher who opens his or her yap about sexual orientation is likely to get crucified by some self-righteous parent.

There are some things that need to be taught, but never will be, in public school.  ¶ 3:50 PM