Even when they aren’t fired for being pregnant or gay, teachers face strict moral demands
Pregnant teachers in classrooms are routine these days. But the law didn’t always protect expectant women in any workplace.
As part of her stump speech, Sen. Elizabeth Warren tells a story about being fired from her job as a speech pathologist for special needs children once she became pregnant back in 1971. Sharing this chapter in her history has prompted dozens of other women to speak out about their own similar experiences.
And while things have changed quite a bit, teachers are still confronting evolving restrictions on what they can or can’t do – inside and outside the classroom – typically based on moral grounds.
As a professor who instructs students who are training to become teachers, part of my job is to prepare them to uphold these ethical standards. I also have to explain that these standards are rarely clear and change all the time.
Nurturing teachers
The lawyer Horace Mann, who became the first secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education in 1837, is best known for his leadership in bringing about the nation’s universal, taxpayer-supported, public education system. But that isn’t Mann’s only educational legacy.
In the early 1800s, teaching was largely itinerant work for young men who were preparing for careers in other professions. Mann believed teaching should become women’s work. Replacing stern school CONTINUE READING: Even when they aren’t fired for being pregnant or gay, teachers face strict moral demands – Raw Story