Teachers as Moral Exemplars

Today I read about a school teacher who was fired from her job because she had taken up a second career online
For about six years, Sarah Juree worked full-time as a teacher in South Bend, Indiana.... [b]ut the single mother of twins said she was unable to support her family on the modest salary of $55,000 per year, especially as the cost of living continues to rise across the U.S. 

Juree said her rent alone cost nearly half of her income and her employer didn’t offer health insurance.
Rent is going up, and mortgage rates are skyrocketing, food costs are outrageous and gasoline continues to be expensive. One can easily sympathize with the problem.

The teacher's alternative concept for bringing in some extra money apparently upset her leadership, however, presumably because it makes her seem less moral they wanted a fifth-grade teacher to be. On the other hand, however, fifth graders are presumably not her market -- both because they are too young and because they have no money. Her intent was surely to keep these spheres separate.

Back on the first hand, one can argue that nothing can be kept secret from fifth-graders with internet connections. 

Still, it is striking to me that this kind of thing would get one fired at a time when the schools seem bent on increasing the amount of similar content in what they are pleased to call 'education.' Why forbid this to teachers you've got wearing badges around the school with QR codes that link to such content? You've already got them selling the content; why object if they want to make a little money off the sales? 

Is capitalism the real offense here? Is South Bend, Indiana all that different from Hilliard City, Ohio?

4 comments:

Aggie said...

..." Juree said she was “very scared” when the blogs started popping up. “It was humiliating,” Juree said.

..."“It’s just interesting what people pick and choose to approve in their mind as far as sex and sexuality goes,” she added."


I wonder what she found humiliating about it - what did she think was going to happen when she started posting nude pictures of herself for money, online?

We're so polarized now, though, I think it's mistaken to think that an assumed overly-conservative parent's reaction to OnlyFans is hypocritical when compared to the standard school curriculum these days. The same person probably has issues there too (not defending him, incidentally, because he's coming across as a vindictive, puritanical idiot).

E Hines said...

A couple things jump out at me on this.

One is what were the blogger and "concerned parent" doing on OnlyFans? Surely they knew the sort of things they would see there, and that's why they were there. Is it that they object only when it's someone they might know? Anonymous women are OK? Maybe if thee were black bars across the women's eyes, after the fashion of 1950s 8mm films of a type.

The other, more important, thing is the comparison of this teacher's actions with what schools seem bent on increasing the amount of similar content in what they are pleased to call 'education.' The more accurate comparison would be what the South Bend, Indiana, school district has/permits in its schools and libraries. There'd be quite a bit less hypocrisy in the school district if its classrooms and libraries are devoid of that "similar content." The linked-to article shed no light on that.

It also would be interesting were the teacher able to prove her conversation with her boss regarding his view of the appropriateness of her then-proposed side gig.

Eric Hines

Fredrick said...

So a DOD contractor making the average income for South Bend IN (easily found on the interwebs) is unable to afford insurance for ..... six years? Please. Getting fired? Never would have happened if she were any of the protected classes.

Deevs said...

I might be way off base here, but isn't it odd that she's a full time teacher yet doesn't get health insurance?