One of the hazards of teaching is it’s easy to forget that you were once on the opposite side of the desk. Rafe Posey never had that luxury. In a BuzzFeed essay he explains the hazards, and joys, of being a trans man in a New York City junior high school.

When he walked into his first class, most of the students had seen four previous teachers. And the school year was barely two months old. The girls ‘were starting to figure out how the world worked, for better or worse, and most of them had some idea what they wanted to be when they grew up.’ The boys? Well, who doesn’t know how loopy young men can be?

‘They were a bristling, nervy pack, with mediocre attention spans torn between their female classmates, the movement of light outside the classroom, and opportunities to prove their masculinity. They were horny and rank, on the threshold of becoming men.’

Posey could have easily thrown up his hands, except he was going through the same changes.

‘Even racing through the steps of transition, straying from the regimented pathway that governs most transitions, I hardly passed as male when I started my teacher training.’

When he first applied to the NYC Teaching Fellows program, Posey was a she. He was accepted, but turned down the offer. The program called again, and he said yes. He did let school officials know of the changes, but no one seemed to care. However, there was the tangle of paperwork and forms required to certify the new Posey.

The red tape was a piece of cake compared to the classroom. Mainly because ‘adolescents want to know everything about their teachers, but they don’t like to think about the details.’ His charges were observant. There were a few jokes about Posey being a hobbit as his students grew and he didn’t. One even scrawled on a desk "Posey is a ‘travestite.’ Posey was initially worried but, by the end of the day, ‘more annoyed by the misspelling than by the threat of exposure.’

Posey did have to reconsider past hard held opinions. He didn’t return to the closet, but didn’t exactly announce himself loudly. Colleagues, who turn into friends, are told of his past. Staff members who mumble and grumble gossip are allowed to come up with their own narratives. As for the students, they are more concerned about Mr. Posey.

‘Many of my former students found me on Facebook or Twitter after graduation. I often post trans items on social media, and sometimes they click like. They also search out links they think I will like, and ask me to comment on their writing. Their interest, and the occasional note of appreciation for my teaching, makes that baffling first year feel like a success – everything I learned helped me be more effective at the high school and college levels.’