I always knew that teacher’ were more of a woman’s career but never really thought about why. It’s unfortunate that the reason that it’s such a low-paying job is deep-rooted in history. I also think it’s interesting that teachers play such a large role in developing and raising children. They’re supposed to play the role of the mother, counselor and even in a sense, minister. However, if a teacher is supposed to be nurturing and mother-like, where do we draw the line? Can a teacher be TOO motherly? For example, I remember in the 3rd grade, one of my classmates called our teacher “mom”. How big of an issue is this?
McGuffey’s Readers were the most popular collections of literatures sold at the time. What I found interesting were the stories of “The Rich Boy” and “The Poor Boy”. One of the main points of the creation of common schools was to create a sense of unity between the classes yet the students were taught how a proper rich and poor boy are to act. They were taught that God made them that way and that the rich boy should be charitable and the poor boy should not be jealous. Doesn’t that still teach children that their social status is immobile and that they should just accept life the way it is?
