From my blog on www.parentsociety.com
I’m a teacher. That is my role and function in life. I have taught
young children in music classes; worked as a music therapist with older
children who live with emotional, behavioral, and intellectual
disabilities. I teach undergraduate college students today, and have
taught graduate students in the past at small and large colleges and
universities. Today, I teach “Ethics, Religions, and the World” and
English composition courses full-time at North Carolina Central
University in Durham, NC, a historical black college/university (HBCU).
In total, I’ve taught in higher education for over sixteen years. My
reviews from teaching tend to be “high” in terms of overall teaching
effectiveness, whether I was teaching young children in music therapy
sessions or doctoral students at a major research university. Why the
high ratings? Because I use my life story as a resource of how to do
things in life — or not do certain things. I use stories of my
life-partner, my children, my parents, and other experiences that I’ve
garnered over time and place. Like all good educators, I know that
teaching works best when we develop a relationship with others, and tell
and live our stories.
Recently, one student at the HBCU where I teach asked me what it was
like to be a minority, “you know, white, a dad, partnered, gay, and a
Presbyterian pastor.” I simply laughed and said that my minority status
where I work gave me a slight insight into how my students feel daily in
the primarily white world in which we live. I know as a fact that some
out and closeted lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning
students take my class because
I am an out-gay teacher. They’ve said that knowing this makes them feel safe in the classroom to be themselves.
Read more here
: http://www.parentsociety.com/todays-family/same-sex-parents/im-a-teacher-and-im-gay/
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