Miriam: I want to ask this question and it isn't on this list and it isn't on this list but I am fascinated by it, and I was fascinated during the working so I am just gonna do it and hopefully you won't feel too weirded out by the question. But can you talk to me about, like, it was all girls your workshop.
 
Matt: Yeah...
 
Miriam: So could you talk a bit about how teaching all girls, and being kind of a young man affected the workshop at all?
 
Matt:

Well I mean, it does and it doesn't. The fact that I'm a young, well at the time I was 24 year old. I mean they sort of look up to our, my age group, and our age group, our age group. Okay. Teenagers look up to our age group, whether they admit or not as like, sort of role-models, and you know, they watch television that is full of people in their early 20's and late- 20's so I think that has, from, basically you could apply that to how they see me. And it seemed like they weren't, they didn't really see me as so much as a teacher, because like I'm not a teacher, I'm not working in their high school, I'm sort of like this, I'm trying to get away from that whole question.   
 
Mir: It's okay
 
Matt:

They flirted a lot with me and it was kinda awkward, cause I didn't know how to deal with it, 'cause I am not trained to deal with it, and um I kinda just ignored it.

Miriam: How do you think - now that you've experienced it one time if you were in the same position a second time what would you do differently?
 
Matt:

I feel like the only thing to do is just not address it because uh I have friends who are in the same age group as myself, who are teachers in high schools and they, you know I asked them about it and they sort of just said that you have to just ignore it. It's something that when I was in high school I didn't notice it happening and didn't notice my classmates flirting with the staff. So I didn't know what to do to be honest, I kinda just had to brush it off, and be like. I don't know if it's my place to tell them it's inappropriate to act that way basically. Um I didn't. 

I think that it’s really an isolated thing. Like I don't think it would sort of happen if we were at a high school with an entire group. I think what happened, is that it was a sort of a microcosm, this group of 4 girls who were all friends, and really really comfortable with each other. It was really obvious, I mean two of them were best friends and obviously inseparable. So that changes the whole dynamic, cause I'm not a stranger to them, because I made my film, and they were sort of like, the main characters in my film, so I mean, I spent a good 4 months following these girls around with a camera so I mean like, the whole dynamic changes cause they don't see me as an authority person, and they don't really see me as sort of a peer but somewhere trapped in the middle.

So I think for them maybe it's hard for them to sort of negotiate me and how they should act and what's appropriate and like, what boundaries, and you know we could see them really pushing those boundaries and I think at one point, I kinda, of was just like "Okay that's inappropriate" and I was like "No I'm sorry you can't act that way" and then it stopped. I mean it obviously changed the mood; they were a lot sadder, more sad. Um, but like I was saying, it would be a little bit different, I think, My experience, if I were not gay, because I am not sure how I would have reacted if I was straight. And I don't think they, I mean they obviously had no idea if I was gay or straight, so I mean from a gay male perspective it was a little bit off-putting.  
 
Miriam: Did it feel a bit safer because you were like there's no way that?
 
Matt:

Yeah, yeah it does because I was just like well, because I have no interest in flirting back with a 14-year-old girl. But I don't know it's weird like it happened to me at another high school where a young guy who was obviously um, gay flirted with me as well. Like it was really, I was just like, I right told him, "You just can't do that. I'm sorry, it's just not appropriate." And he got the message and was just like "okay." But I think maybe he just didn't understand, you know he probably didn't understand where it was coming from, and like, there was lots of factors, so it was a lot easier for me to just like know what he was doing and just be like, "no I'm sorry you can't do that it's inappropriate"

Miriam: We were talking a bit earlier about the flirting thing and how that was weird for you. Yeah, but what were the, like the positive aspect of that weird flirting thing was that these were, that this was a different power relationship between you and the students. Do you think that changed, that's part of media training? Is it part of the media training? 
 
Matt:

The more kids get to be able to go on field trips and have people come to them and whatever. It's just enriching their sort of learning experience and their high school experience as a whole as a general. Umm I think it's they don't really understand, which is fine, like, they don't need to understand this. Nobody, like I don't wanna be like judgey and be like, well they just don't know how to act outside the classroom. I think it's okay for them to act out and like, it's part of learning, they need to be able to like, push their boundaries and understand where they stand in this world because nobody, it doesn't come with a set of instructions. It's like when you're outside the classroom and you meet a stranger you must act this way like, it doesn't, I mean it's not 1920 anymore.

So like, it's important for them to the sort of go outside the sort of, classroom and outside that box, and experience new ways of learning and like, experiencing this, and the whole idea of media training to them is you know, It's not only that they're going on like a field trip to like, It's not like a Science Museum, they're going and learning about something that is quite alternative.