First Male Teacher

As part of their effort to bring their high school into the 21st century, not only had they opened the school to males, but they also wanted to update their curriculum.

That was where I came in. They had hired me to become the Computer Science teacher, as part of the state effort to increase female enrollment in STEM fields. Many parents had been urging them to do so as well so this made the administration look good to everyone. And as a bonus, I was their first male teacher so there was that as well.

So as the bell rang on my first day, I was standing in front of a class of teenage girls with one solitary boy sitting at the back. The girls that weren't giving the boy sidelong glances were staring at me. This is going to be VERY interesting, I thought.

I pointed to where I had written my name on the SmartBoard. "As you can all see, my name is Mr. Taylor. I am the school's new Computer Science teacher. How many of you have any experience with computers beyond the usuals of Social Media and writing papers and that kind of thing?"

Only a few raised their hands and the only one who did so with any confidence was the guy.

I nodded. "Okay, and how many of you have any programming experience?" All the girls who had their hands up lowered them and the guy looked a little hesitant. "What do you know?" I asked him.

"Just a little bit of HTML and JavaScript, that's all. Nothing major."

"That's alright. That's still a good - if small - foundation to build on." He looked a little happier at that and the girls' glances at him increased.

I had the feeling he was going to get a lot of requests for tutoring eventually. In the meantime, I smiled kindly and nodded. "As for the rest of you, that's alright. The nice thing about Computer Science is, once we get beyond the basics, you can all progress at your own paces."

I saw some happier looks on faces and some of them sat up straighter, presenting an improved view to me as their shirts tightened in front.

I deliberately ignored them, knowing that a VERY large percentage of them were jailbait and I wasn't exactly planning on pursuing the eighteen-year-olds.

I continued explaining the goals for the semester and when the bell rang, I let them go. The same thing happened in each class and by lunchtime, I was more than ready for the break.