Dancing with the Stars Finale

Last night was the finale of "Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars." It was the only episode I watched this season. I used to watch DWTS religiously in high school and college, but after Season 8 I started ballroom dancing so I quit watching because I was so critical of the celebs.

*Spoiler Alert*

In Season 8, Shawn Johnson won and Melissa Rycroft came in third. They were both in this All-Star season, and Melissa Rycroft won last night. Shawn got second. I was so bummed out! Shawn was absolutely amazing! I was really happy for Tony Dovolani (Melissa's professional partner), though, because he's been on for 14 season and finally won. I think Derek Hough (Shawn's professional partner) has won twice. He is really a phenomenal dancer, though. The choreography he and Shawn did was really great.

Now I know all you hardcore DWTS fans who love the fact that Melissa won are about to say, "Shawn and Derek broke the rules in their last dance." I know. In the quickstep you can't break hold and they did. But it was brilliant. Would they have won if they hadn't gotten points docked by the judges for breaking the rules? Possibly. But they put on the show of a lifetime. Melissa wasn't as great, in my opinion.

I don't watch a lot of reality shows. I watch "Project Runway" and the season finale of DWTS. If I am sick and there is a "Top Chef" or "America's Next Top Model" marathon on, I'll watch those, too. The reason I don't watch reality shows like "The Bachelorette" or "Housewives of whatever-town-we're-in-this-time" is that they don't really require any talent. It's just watching people live their lives and fighting. Shows like DWTS, Project Runway, and Top Chef require a lot of skills. I like that. I think it's cool to see the best of the best in their field duking it out to get to the top.

Big congrats to all the finalists on DWTS! They all put in hours and hours of work to get that far and I know how much it meant to all of them. Can't wait until the next season finale for my next dose of DWTS!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

Teachers: Is Your Personal Life Really Yours?

Sarah Jones, teacher and cheerleader.

Yesterday's abysmal court ruling that gave the BenGal dancer/teacher Sarah Jones only 5 years probation after she had sex with a student made me think about what teachers are allowed to do outside of school. I thought about it and came to a couple conclusions:
1. I would have felt incredibly uncomfortable if I had a teacher in high school who was a cheerleader/dancer on the nights and weekends. I would have felt like she was a role model for me; someone put there by the school board to show me a good example of an adult. There definitely would have been a huge influence on my dressing and actions if I had known she was a dancer, because I would see showing 90% of my body and shaking my boobs and butt to thousands of people both at home and on national television as an acceptable thing to do. "If my teacher can do it, why can't I?" would have been a pretty logical leap for a teenage mind.
2. If I had a child who had a cheerleader/dancer as a teacher, I would be very upset. If I ever have a child, male or female, who has a teacher who moonlights as a slutty dancer in clothing the size of a postage stamp, I would question the school board's decision of hiring her.

In Kentucky, according to KRS 161.164, teachers are not allowed to be part of political campaigns because they don't want the teachers using their authoritative positions to influence students. I spent two hours this morning looking for where the KRS laws mention stripping or dancing while being a teacher and they don't exist, as far as I've found. So, the state doesn't want teachers influencing their students (most of whom cannot vote) politically, but it's fine to influence the students' (most of whom in middle and high school are starting to experiment with sex) sexual behavior . I really disagree with this.

I looked at three Kentucky county teacher contracts this morning: Jefferson, Boone, and Kenton. In all of them, there was some version of this sentence: "The private life of a teacher is not the concern of the School Board unless it affect's the teachers responsibility as set forth in KRS 161.120." In Section 1, Part c of this statute, it says, "Committing any act that constitutes...immoral conduct." Who decides "immoral"? I think dancing/cheering in extraordinarily revealing clothing on weekends is immoral. But obviously, the Board doesn't agree with that, because Sarah Jones was a teacher while she was a cheerleader.

Teachers have long been regarded as pillars of the community. I am a third generation teacher in my family and in my immediate family alone, there are 5 teachers. I see education and teaching as the noblest of professions because there would be no leaders, no engineers, no doctors, no lawyers, nothing, without teachers. It is my opinion that we need to restore the integrity to the teaching profession. Just like a politician's life is not their own (see Bill Clinton or anyone else who has done something in their personal life and gotten destroyed for it), neither is a teacher's life. When you enter the teaching profession, you become a role model for thousands of students. You are teaching the next generation about values, about academia, about social relations, and everything else. Overall, teachers see students more than parents do during the school year. I absolutely do not feel comfortable entrusting my children to people who sell their bodies on weekends (yes, nothing physical is happening, but you're baring your body to the world for entertainment). I don't care if it's "dancing" and some people consider it "athletic" and "not sexual" as I know some of you will respond. It is highly inappropriate for our students to be exposed to that mentality in a public school.

For the record, for those of you who know me and remember that I was a ballroom dancer for a few years and wore incredibly revealing costumes, I would not continue that sport as a teacher. I think that, too, is excessively revealing and too sexual to participate in publicly in competitions on my weekends as a teacher. I know that this is an amazingly conservative view, but the reason I have this opinion is that our children are exposed to so much sexual media all the time outside of school that I feel like school should be one place that is safe from that. Girls especially are so influenced by sex, "being sexy," and working to "look good." School should be a place for academia and not sex or having sex-related distractions, such as an entire class knowing their teacher bares (almost) all every weekend in front of a 50,000 person stadium.

Kids are impressionable. Let's work on giving them good impressions.

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi