Train Wreck - No Pictures, Please

I haven’t thought much about censorship of myself. My space on the internet is known by a few in real life, but as it has grown, I have tried to cut that number down. No tweets when I post…there are co-workers, friends, acquaintances that follow my twitter. The more real this space comes, the less I want others to see it.

A lot of the teachers in #Education rarely show their face, and if they do, it’s promptly deleted. I take the risk of showing my face. It’s my space, right? I don’t use this space as only education. It’s used for many other things.

I only started to think more about censorship last week. A kid spotted me and then my face was reblogged by someone who I’ve never interacted with. I’ve never seen a “like”, reply, or even received a message. Why? Why is my face on their blog? It has no place there. Especially if it was placed on their blog with no comment. I realize I take the risk of being “found” by using Tumblr as my space and not locking it down. I accept that. I do have a hard time accepting that because I’m a teacher I’m held to a different standard. A standard that makes me feel ashamed that a student saw me dressed up and racing around the city with a shopping card. A standard that makes me feel awkward if I’m at a bar having a drink and a parent comes in. I don’t like that I don’t know the person who reblogged my photo and I fear that it will turn into someone finding out where my space is. I feel weird when I see my stuff on Pinterest. What if someone I know sees it..goes to my page and makes a connection? What if that person is a parent? Why does that parent have the right to judge me as a teacher for what I do on my time outside of work?

I have a hard time thinking that many other professions* out there go through what teachers do to keep a wall, so people don’t really know them. It sucks that the rest of the world is supposed to think that teachers are just teachers. They think we aren’t humans that that have friends, go to parties, had a good time in college… We are just teachers.

I’m just in a bad mood.

*I’m sure there are other professions that go through something similar. I was not trying to knock any other profession.