I went to prep school. I didn't go to the fanciest prep school in my town--it was the "alternative" school, so we called our teachers by their first names and had a gay/straight alliance and it was "only" $9,000 (not $20,000). But there were absolutely these same kinds of tensions, pressures, and scenarios. There was no facebook, but there were anonymous student newsletters that passed around awful rumors about teachers.
And of course--OF COURSE--there were those awful kids who managed to combine nastiness and confidence in a way that's threatening to teachers, particularly teachers who're sensitive and care a lot. And (once again) of course, they often targeted young female teachers in the anonymous cartoons they put up on classroom doors, cartoons that were just sexually tinged enough to be creepy and threatening.
And sadly, there were some parents (members of the board of trustees, local media figures, prominent businesspeople) who reacted with anger when their kids were busted harassing teachers in that way, or drinking on a school trip to Europe, or whatever. My parents were of the "If you get in trouble at school, you'll be in twice as much trouble at home" persuasion, but then again, they grew up working-class.
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Date: 2008-04-01 10:59 pm (UTC)I went to prep school. I didn't go to the fanciest prep school in my town--it was the "alternative" school, so we called our teachers by their first names and had a gay/straight alliance and it was "only" $9,000 (not $20,000). But there were absolutely these same kinds of tensions, pressures, and scenarios. There was no facebook, but there were anonymous student newsletters that passed around awful rumors about teachers.
And of course--OF COURSE--there were those awful kids who managed to combine nastiness and confidence in a way that's threatening to teachers, particularly teachers who're sensitive and care a lot. And (once again) of course, they often targeted young female teachers in the anonymous cartoons they put up on classroom doors, cartoons that were just sexually tinged enough to be creepy and threatening.
And sadly, there were some parents (members of the board of trustees, local media figures, prominent businesspeople) who reacted with anger when their kids were busted harassing teachers in that way, or drinking on a school trip to Europe, or whatever. My parents were of the "If you get in trouble at school, you'll be in twice as much trouble at home" persuasion, but then again, they grew up working-class.