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The Loss of Mystical Mother Powers as a Childless Educator

The Loss of Mystical Mother Powers as a Childless Educator
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Author(s): Ashley Gerhardson (Arkansas Colleges of Health Education, USA)
Copyright: 2025
Pages: 16
Source title: Experiences of Child-Free PK-16 Educators: Bias, Perspectives, and Assumptions
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Catherine Zeisner (Heritage University, USA)
DOI: 10.4018/979-8-3693-2790-6.ch005

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Abstract

As a teacher, administrators, co-workers, and parents would ask how I understood children if I did not have any. I have heard the adage “She's a mother of children,” implying a deeper connection to students. This excuse has been utilized to prove that a co-worker is better at time management, people skills, and connection due to some mystical power of having a child. Even working at multiple levels of education and in numerous roles, the nuance that I violated all expectations remains. A childless administrator related well to me until she became a mother. A switch occurred, and I remember vividly being told “You do not like children and do not understand them!” I had indeed become the societal deviant in the school system. Regardless of my Ph.D. and in-depth education knowledge, I could not know what a child needed. By not having children of my own, I had an unspoken disdain for children. These stereotypes were far from the truth. I devoted my life goals to loving others, so I did not wish to detract from this ability. The mother stereotype meant I could never understand.

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