Growing up, it was hard to consider that your teacher had a life outside the classroom. In fact, when I was very young, I thought all the teachers lived in the school and the classroom had pull out beds somewhere. As we grew older, we came to realize that yes, our teachers had real lives, real families, real problems, and that they, in fact, did not live at the school.

So it is a bit unbelievable when you hear a grown man say things like “an unmarried woman who is sleeping with her boyfriend…shouldn’t be in the classroom”, just as Republican Senator Jim DeMint stated during a rally. Wow, really? From his statement one would think that teachers are "throwing down" or “getting down” during a spelling lesson. It just becomes extremely irritating when seemingly educated people make such idiotic statements. Teachers, like any professional person, know to keep their personal lives private from their work lives, especially when there are children involved.

DeMint also said this about LGBTQ teachers: “if they're openly homosexual, we can't let them near our children.” Honestly, I would feel worried about exposing my children to foolish, closed-minded declarations from politicians, as opposed to my child being taught by a competent teacher who happens to be LGBT. I would think parents are more worried about the teacher’s ability and skill, rather than who they are sleeping with. Perhaps that is wishful thinking though…