Years ago, the middle school teachers on my campus were forced to do a book study with the new assistant principal on the title “Rigor Is Not a Four-Letter Word.” For Christmas, they gave the AP a very special gift. Everyone wrapped their copy of that fucking book and presented it to him.

Right. It’s not like that’s hard to do. They’ll give emergency or provisional certification to anything with a pulse and a college degree in something.

It’s not always that clear. In my state, there are a lot of confusing clauses about emergency credentials and being allowed to teach one grade above or below your certification for one year before obtaining that certification.

In Texas, highly qualified means that you have a bachelor degree in anything and have paid your money to do whatever rinkydink alternative certification program that is still legal, and paid your money to take and pass the easy-ass certification tests in whatever subject you’re going to teach. I know, I’m a highly…

I deeply regret going into education. It’s ruining my life. It’s an abusive relationship, and I’m trapped by finances and staying in it for the children.

Title I, inner-city teacher in Texas here. I feel you. We don’t have Common Core, but we really do have Common Core, if you know what I mean. And we have all the testing. I cry a lot. Like, a lot. Every Sunday night, I feel sick. I’ve been doing this for more than a decade now, and I don’t know what else I’d do. But I…

As some other folks have mentioned, she has national board certification. The standards for this certification are much, much higher than they are in individual states. Some states pay significantly more to teachers with this certification for that reason.

To me, too. My (abusive) ex loves to fling the words “improper” and “inappropriate" at me.

Very closely associated with Pentecostals, yeah. I grew up Assemblies of God, and when I would ask my mother what our denomination was, she would respond that we were Pentecostal.

I grew up Assemblies of God (and have the PTSD to prove it). They do allow women to preach, but only a very, very, VERY narrow slice of women are allowed to do so in actuality, and almost always she is associated with a husband who preaches. I don’t know where you got the “slightly more liberal” thing, they are more…

Yes. And some of the language used to describe birth is the polar opposite of anything remotely feminist.

Likewise. Late 30s, single mom, struggling financially. I feel you.

Yes. So much this. I’m a single mother, working full-time as a teacher. I have no family here. I’m Appalachian, from a working class background. I want to sputter with rage whenever someone just flippantly tosses out, “Can’t you just find childcare?” Where? At the childcare store? What the hell, really? I have to lug…

Also, when it comes to domestic violence cases, a lot of times victims won’t/can’t testify because of their custody case. The MRAs and Fathers’ Rights attorneys have made it damned near impossible for women involved in custody cases to get any kind of protection (much less justice) for domestic violence done to them.…

Ha. Totally. And I’m an Appalachian who currently lives in Houston, TX, so I get it!

No, really, go fuck yourself. There is a long history of complete shittiness towards Appalachians. A couple of weeks ago was the anniversary of the only time the United States has bombed its own civilian population (Blair Mountain). I grew up seeing the only representations of Appalachians in entertainment as…

I am so sick of this. I’m Appalachian, and I was raised to treat people with empathy. It was never acceptable in my household to slander gays or trans* people. Ever. Can we stop being absolute jerks to people from my region? Because it reeks of classism and something awfully close to ethnic hatred.

I totally love your little girl self. LOVE.

As an inner-city Houston English teacher, I respond directly to the social studies mandates by choosing both fiction and non-fiction materials that fight the bullshit. My students are 94% minorities, and I'm just not having it. Not under my watch.

Wow, insensitive much?