Tuesday, an openly gay Florida teacher appeared on MSNBC distraught that he could not tell his kindergarten students about his love life.
“You know, it’s two-fold, it really hits hard in my heart professionally and personally. Professionally it truly makes me feel like I am not trusted as a professional. I know my kindergarten standards through and through and nowhere in our curriculum does it have anything about teaching sexual orientation or sexual identity,” Cory Bernaert explained.
He expresses that he feels as though he can’t tell his students that he doesn’t have a “Mrs. Bernaert” but rather, a Mr. he explained that his students want to know who his partner is, but feels the law prevents this.
At the same time, the teacher acknowledged that the law only applies to the teaching of sexuality. The knowledge that their teacher is married to a man is not any more “teaching” than seeing a female teacher with a male partner is.
However aside from occasions where a teacher’s spouse pops into work to check on, or deliver forgotten items – there really is no reason for teachers to inform students about their spouse and love life. Especially when the teacher deals with kindergartners. Professionalism often involves preventing the mix of private personal affairs and work affairs.
“So for them to say that that’s happening that, you know, it is kind of crazy, but we should be able to have discussions and that’s what we’re encouraged to do in kindergarten. Personally, because my kids do have questions, they want to know who my partner is and pictures outside the classroom and I should be able to speak to them.” The teacher said
Speak to them about what? What exactly is it that kindergartners so desperately need to know about their teacher’s spouse?
“Do you worry you can’t talk about your own personal home life? I know my child has two teachers, one of which has a daughter at home and is single. The other is married and has four children. I know everything about their lives because my kid tells me,” the host asked.” The MSNBC host asked.
“Absolutely, you are 100% correct,” Bernaert said. “That’s what we do as educators, we build relationships with our kids. In order to build relationships, you talk about your home life, what you do on the weekends that’s building community. It scares me that I am not going to be able to have these conversations with my children because they’re going to ask about what I did on the weekend, I don’t want to have to hide that my partner and I went paddleboarding this weekend. They will ask ‘what does partner mean?’ Can I tell them what it means?” He concluded.
Teachers serve one purpose; to teach the curriculum, to instruct. Teachers are not friends or confidants.