Job Discussion Forums

[TheBee'sKnees]

Hi. I was just wondering if it's possible to get a paying job only teaching women anywhere in Sub-Saharan Africa. I am interested in teaching in Africa but over the course of my life I have had horrible experiences involving African men (particularly from western African countries). It's not that I have anything directly against them. It just seems like working in a setting as intimate as a classroom would be much more comfortable for me if I were only teaching women. Any thoughts?

[Global Hobo]

I would also like to teach Sub-Saharan women. An all-female Czech class would be great too.

[cassava]

[TheBee'sKnees]

[bje]

[cassava]

The Bee's Knees:

In my comments, I emphasized attitude. I could not care less whether you are half-African, full-African or quarter-African. Questions about "race" are totally irrelevant here. Any individual, regardless of race, can develop prejudiced attitudes. It is immaterial whether you are black, white, brown, yellow, or a combination of races.

What is important here is that you have developed an overtly biased attitude towards a certain group of people because of unfortunate events that you have experienced in the past.

Whether you realize it or not, this negative view will be detrimental to you as well as to those Africans whom you would like to teach. You would have to be extremely naive to believe that your attitude would not be reflected in your teaching, or that you would not influence your students.

I think you have a lot of psychological baggage that you need to discard. Counseling might be a good first step.

Nothing is worse than a teacher who, intentionally or unintentionally, poisons the minds of children.

[Pikgitina]

[TT-Kira]

Unfortunately the chance of finding an all female class is slim. Females are still at the bottom of the pile in Africa, parents would rather pay for sons to be educated than daughters. I am in touch with someone through a charity I am part of that is a classic example of this. She wants to further her tertiary education and her father is able to pay for it, but holding it back for her brothers possible future needs!

[Chancellor]

[bje]

[cassava]

[bje]

[TheBee'sKnees]

A few points:

-How is at that based on a post someone writes on an internet forum someone can have the audacity to suggest that someone is going to poison the minds of children? That's just silly. Who is even talking about children?

-My "horrible experiences involving African men" haven't been few and far between and I'm not saying that all African men are bad, or that all of the experiences involved "bad" men. In fact, most of the experiences have simply resulted from sending the "wrong" signals, which sometimes happens to be ridiculously easy even when some women purposely avoid doing so. I'm naturally a very friendly, affable teacher and I wouldn't want to have to "just be mean" to anyone (which my male African relatives have often INSISTED I do when these situations are thrust upon me) just to not send the wrong signals. It's fine on the streets, but not in my classroom.

-And since when does saying that "I" have had bad experiences, and that "I" would be more comfortable in a different situation qualify as a generalization? I didn't say "All African men are bad people." That would be different.

-Don't read so much into my original post and use it as a license to jump down my throat. And the fact that I am half African IS relevent here. African women often get treated differently in some circles than non-African women by African men. Everyone knows that a single female would have different experiences among different cultures and that it does sometimes factor in when deciding which country to teach in. Ex: It would not be a ridiculous generalization to say that I'd get a lot more unwanted male attention from locals in, say, India or Morrocco than I would in Vietnam.

-I would not start a new thread by spitting out my entire life story because A: it's annoying, B: plenty of people would not want to have to read an essay before actually understanding the poster's question and C:If there is specific information I am after I don't like to cover it up with pie-in-the-sky nonsense. My only "naive" mistake was forgetting that a lot of people on this forum seem to be out to big themselves up by attacking each other instead of staying on topic.

-TT-Kira, thanks for actually answering my question. It was helpful.

[Chancellor]

[bje]