Being a teacher is a personal career. Teachers interact with children and teen-agers and inadvertently set themselves up to be both instructors and role models.

However, there is a distinction between how they choose to live their personal lives and how they conduct themselves in the classroom.

Recently, The Bakersfield Californian ran a story on Jason Oliver, a 23-year-old former Bakersfield High and University of Southern California graduate who has just been named head coach for football at BHS. Oliver was a model athlete and in the past has been a counselor and history teacher.

The story did point out that Oliver recently celebrated the birth of his daughter with girlfriend Nicole Vance.

The two are not married. Apparently to many Bakersfield residents who wrote letters to The Californian, this matters, even though Oliver raised his younger brother while in college after losing both of his parents tragically. That evidentally doesn’t compensate for the fact that he is not married and has a child.

Forget the fact that the staff at BHS felt he was the right person for the job or that he started four years for USC.

None of these qualifications matter because some people are arrogant enough to want to dictate how people should live their lives. The problem here isn’t Oliver’s morals, it’s others not minding their own business.

That’s not to say educators should be able to give in to every temptation that slithers their way. It is intolerable for an educator to be openly racist and thus possibly discriminate against certain students, exhibit pedophiliac qualities and act upon them or be addicted to drugs, since these are all things that can inhibit the ability to be a good teacher.

However, what if the instructor had at one time been an alcoholic, loves listening to “devil rock” heavy metal or Marilyn Manson or sometimes, outside of school, dresses up strangely?

Is being an atheist or homosexual a factor that interferes with teaching?

The truth is none of this matters, as long as the focus of the class remains on giving students a quality education and not exposing his or her personal baggage, no matter how uncomfortable that concept makes certain local prudes.

Without a doubt, teachers have a huge impact on students.

Saying Oliver shouldn’t teach because he is an unwed father emphasizes his lifestyle choice over his excellence as an instructor.

It is what he does as a coach and a teacher in the classroom that counts.