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I wonder sometimes what the rest of
the world makes of our "turn of phrases"
like this...

I cna only guess you thought this was
a place to get a new Mom and bottle of soda.

bump.

Hey Gary, thanks for your dripping condescension! The smiley face doesn't hide it. My maleness (and TimR's) doesn't detract from,

a) people wildly overestimate some forms of risk, while under-appreciating much larger risks.

This is a well-researched fact that is not gender-specific.

b) My personal view that the thread is rather sad because so many people are expressing real fears that they are in danger in the normal pursuit of their professional activities. This is a comment on the current world.

And no, I wasn't saying anything specific about the OP's first post. In a sense, for her the barn door was opened by her method of advertising. Once you go beyond word of mouth you enter the regular commercial world. Because teachers tend to work in their home (or in someone else's home) they may face more risk than many other service providers who work in a public place. How much risk is a very subjective issue. What to do about it is yet another subjective call.

But even in the more public part of the service industry people take precautions. And again, it is sad that they feel compelled to do so. Ob-Gyns today often have a person (witness) in the room when they do an exam. [That person earns a salary, and it is part of the social cost of medicine]. This person is there in the room in large part to protect the physician against future legal claims that they abused a patient.

Piano*Dad, I have a question. This thread has been dead for some time. This morning Red Rose, who I assume is a female teacher, told us about her experience. It was concrete, factual, and I think useful. You followed her thread to respond, not to what she said, but to an old post by TimR. Was there a reason you did that? Why not respond to what was just posted which was real, non-speculative, pertinent and current? Might you want to do so now?

At this moment I am not interested in what research does, but in what we actually experience. The fact is that many private teachers will teach out of their own homes, where they are totally alone with someone on a regular basis. You do not have that as a professor, and being male, the risk is also not the same, though your risks might be different - such as being accused of things. These are practical considerations, and they are real. Those in such situations need to discuss them. Not via philosophical speculation or vague research with statistical results.

Red Rose had a very specific incident. She was contacted by someone saying he had a daughter, but only talking about himself, and when they were to meet to discuss lessons, he did not show up and definitely had no daughter to show.

People take precautions for other things, such as financial. There are downpayments, for example. I have twice done work for clients who then did not pay me, and learned the hard way to research your client and get unknown individuals to prepay for at least part of your work. Nobody would call this excessive. So why should other risks not be viewed the same way?

What about Red Rose's specific example?

Gary, I must agree. It's probably a rare thing where a man feels vulnerable or at risk for being violated. There are things women these days *must* do and think about on a daily basis to be vigilant. It's much better than the alternative.

You were smart to meet in a public place and insist on the daughter being there.

Because I had not noticed that it was a retread thread. This is one of the dangers of bringing a thread back to life.

It is also part of being clueless.

You are not listening to what women are saying in this thread. If that bothers you, tough. You did the man thing, barged in with a ton of cold logic and entirely failed to get the point.

The POINT is that women have a much harder time protecting themselves. But do continue with TimR, who is not even part of this conversation at present...

You are absolutely correct. My wife is a level-headed as anyone can be, but I am bigger and stronger. I may not have more chance in a fight than she does, but someone will not guess that. And when I was younger I was very strong. I am just short of 6 feet tall, and I once leveled another guy in my 20s, put him in an emergency room with one punch - concussion.

And I am NOT proud of this. It was one of the most shameful things I have ever done. But I am here with my real name. If I were a woman, I would be using a pseudonym.

I do not know one woman who has not been stalked at least once just as a result of being part of a forum.

Women do not have equal rights. They may sometime in the future, but they get paid less, get listened to less and get taken advantage of more.

The glass ceiling is no illusion.

And for the record ANYONE who wants to challenge me on this issue will get a sharp reply. I will not back down. I have seen my wife treated as a second class person over and over again. The reason?

She is a woman.

It seems to me she used her intuition (and no, that's not a female thing, Gary) and judgment. What else can we say. The guy may have been a creep. Who knows. When someone posts an experience like that, what is there really to say? "Nice going."

So, "not backing down" gives you license to insult people? My "male" logic offends you? Oh well.

Right now I'm feeling some real contempt for you.

Wow. Until reading a thread like this, how easily one forgets that a great number of those posting here seem to (believe that they) have to cope with the paranoia of living in a dangerous, threatening, disintegrating, third-world country filled with drug-addled, psychopathic piano teacher slashers. Sad. Tragic.

What kinds of communities are these?

OT: I just love this! I think I need to print it and put it on my refrigerator. I'm adding it to my collection of quotes.

Just saying this statement was a good intervention for me today, a useful mantra to stop stewing about a situation I'm dealing with.

I see it a somewhat different angle. I think that what I am countering is a general notion that we do things based on vague feelings and instincts, the extremes of which are being described as paranoia. There are many things that are done which have been well thought out and planned. Creating a budget so that you aren't caught out, locking your door before you leave the house, giving your students a test at the start of a semester (if you do) in order to see where they are before starting to teach, asking an unknown new client for prepayment. What Red Rose described is a logical strategy, and it is one that I have seen advised. That lifts it out of the vague rhealm of feelings and speculation, which is where you and TimR were heading earlier today.

In my freelance work, many of us are encountering the problem of distance work and ending up not being paid. So we have developed some strategies such as checking your customer's background, getting a partial prepayment, which we've found minimizes the risks. Here RR has told us things that she has done, which are also things I've seen recommended. For those in that situation (working alone in a private place) this may be a practical thing to consider.

I would put John v. d. Brooke's videocam in the same category. Through one decision he is able to provide his students with material to study when they get home, and protection against accusations which haunt male teachers in particular. It's the practical nature that seems interesting.

Ditto...

Right. Like the massacre that just took place in Boston was in a third world country...

People who teach privately often do so in their own homes. Some of them are women, and some do not live with anyone else.

If just one crazy gets in, it may be too late.

Last time I heard things like rape and such also happen in the US.

It's paranoia until it happens to you.

Nice empathy, by the way.

Oh, I notice you do not use your name. Must be conincidence...

Final thought: if the WOMEN in this thread and on PW think I am wrong, if the world is a whole lot more equal and fair to both men and women than I think, I'll apologize to everyone.

I think the world remains a man's world, and I think the Good Ol' Boy Club is quite alive and well - and that women are NOT treated fairly or equally in this society.

But I am a man...

Bowing out...

And what kind of poster on a forum thinks that it's wise for women to not think about these things that happen EVERY DAY? One does not have to be in the third-world country to get raped or murdered. How dare you equate a woman being smart about who she does business with for her own safety with someone who suffers from paranoia?

What is sad and tragic is that you think you can get away with saying such things.

Today's post involved a female teacher who received a response from a man who said he had a daughter, but only talked about himself, and failed to show up for the meeting in which he was asked to bring his daughter.

Are you doing the reductio ad absurdum tactic of turning this very rational thing into the kinds of ridiculous things that you have listed?

A simple question: When you leave the house, do you lock the door? That's a rational precaution. So is meeting a questionable individual in a public place.