Letâs talk about playwright and author David Mametâs recent comments about teachers. We arenât linking the interview here, and I listened to it so you wouldnât have to. Youâve probably seen the social media uproar.
To summarize, Mamet claimed that teachers, and male teachers especially, are prone to pedophilia. He accused teachers in general of grooming students through sex. First, letâs be clear about something: these statements were not made in the context of an otherwise enlightening and informative interview. The conversation began with both the host and guest lamenting the state of a nation that would dare oppose the Donât Say Gay bill in Florida. Mamet went on to connect the discussion of homosexuality or trans rights to the practice of male teachers.
This is an attack on teachers, on gay men, and on non-traditional (non-patriarchal) roles of all types. Let us count the ways Mamet is wrong, with some inspiration from a few 20th-century American playwrights whose words actually matter today.
1. Truth matters
There ainât nothinâ more powerful than the odor of mendacityâŠYou can smell it. It smells like death. âTennessee Williams, âCat On A Hot Tin Roofâ
Okay, Iâm an ELA teacher, and I still had to look up âmendacity.â But now that I know what it means (âdishonestyâ), I can see exactly what Tennessee Williams is talking about. Nothing about this interview was true. It is untrue to say that teachers, male or female, are prone to abusing children.
The nature of sexual abuse in schools is complex and shrouded in shame and secrecy, so the real numbers will likely never be fully understood. The fact is, all abuse is wrong. The nonprofit Innocent Lives Foundation has a lot of great facts on the subject.
Mametâs interview, however, isnât about protecting children. Itâs about preventing nonbinary children from experiencing a true sense of belonging at school and preventing all the other students from being able to understand those experiences. These are the same people who believe that trans-positive health care is child abuse.
2. Sex, gender, and orientation arenât choices
People are not so dreadful when you know them. Thatâs what you have to remember! âTennessee Williams, âThe Glass Menagerieâ,1944.
This is not a political question. This is science. Very simply, getting rid of conversations about nonbinary humansâin our schools and familiesâisnât going to change the fact that some of us are nonbinary. As a society, we have a responsibility to move forward together, and we canât do that when we pretend that some of us donât exist. Do we talk about these things, or do we refuse to? Do we act to support people whose needs we just learned about, or do we pretend those needs arenât there?
In âBelonging: A Culture of Place,â bell hooks wrote, âWhat has become clear is that education for critical consciousness coupled with anti-racist activismâŠon the basis of openness, shared struggle, and inclusive working together offers us the continued possibility of eradicating racism.â As educators, we have a special responsibility to create a place of belonging for all students, and that doesnât mean we are grooming. It means we are treating students with respect.
3. Historyâs lessons
The details of our struggle to survive and prosper, in what has been a difficult and sometimes bitter relationship with a system of laws and practices that deny us access to the tools necessary for productive and industrious life, are available to any serious student of history or sociology. âAugust Wilson
Mamet is also wrong because his interpretation of history is inaccurate, while good teaching and learning is about being truthful and curious.
Both men invoke Margaret Sanger, whose beliefs about eugenics and race are frequently employed to vilify the abortion rights she also advocated for. Context matters, however. This can be a teaching opportunityâabout false equivalencies and about how supporting nonbinary youth to develop a positive and real sense of personal and social belonging is not the same as eugenics.
Acts of exclusion and acts of inclusion are very different. We can teach our students, as well, about fear-mongering and scapegoating. History matters, because we have to understand the past just as we must be willing to move into the future.
4. Our existential threat
Ninety-nine percent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion. âThornton Wilder
Mamet is wrong in a dangerous way because his words reinforce attacks on educators from all sides. The substance of these arguments barely matters anymoreâtheyâve taken on critical mass, and now every word of criticism just adds to the chorus of voices weighing us down every day.
In some states, simply teaching the truth can get teachers in trouble. Many teachers risk their careers simply for sharing the most basic information about their lives. We donât have time or energy to argue each point or address each ridiculous âargument,â and comments like his only make things worse.
Weâre tired of defending ourselves from these straw man attacks, and we shouldnât have to do it anymore. Period.
What should we be doing? Letâs advocate for diverse voices in literature and entertainment, and letâs bring them into our classrooms, too. Many of the writers on this list of great American playwrights have had their work beautifully adapted for the screen, from Tennessee Williams to August Wilson and beyond. Thatâs how we go from fearing the future to embracing it.
