it’s really not off topic. the administrators, bureaucrats and politicians are always saying it is about the children. Happy, relaxed teachers teach better, happy relaxed students learn better. Every time i brought something to the attention of school district administrators, such as serious environmental issues (post…

troll ... k

Way exploited. You poor thing. To put a first year teacher in that situation is typical, but so unfair. This sets you up for failure. I felt guilty, too, for a whole year after i retired. I have been dealing with PTSD due to a horribly toxic work situation. People think i am being dramatic when i say that, but there…

i was a late in life beginning teacher in FL, and when I retired, i was making $39,000 with a Masters. The benefits were ok, but were getting expensive, and we had not had an increase in years. Being that i was single without children, you would have thought i could have made that salary stretch. unfortunately, my…

this is why i no longer go out in public, especially with couples. Whenever i am with my married friends, we can be having a really interesting conversation, and then one of the husbands will have to explain some stupid detail to us like we are kindergartners. I am a hermit because i am so sick of being condescended…

I was an elementary school teacher, and as much as i pride myself on being a progressive feminist, i had to fight the ingrained gender stereotypes our culture has. I really did try to check my bias, but that was because i had learned that this was a concept. yet, i know there were time when i would tolerate behavior…

our school district rooks parents into getting a lot of supplies that they used to be responsible for. I could not believe how much money flew out of my pocket, especially at the beginning of the year. I love that old bumper sticker that said “What if the Department of Defense had to hold a bake sale?” Plus, I live in…

this is really good advice. but i probably would not have heeded it back when. I know it sounds corny, but teachers understand, when i say it was a calling. But just because it was a calling doesn’t mean i should have to go on food stamps to do what is an indescribably difficult job.

after a serious stroke in 20013, i retired from teaching elementary school. Before beginning my teaching career in 2001, i worked in dc for several different public affairs firms. I thought the sexism was bad there! But it was more overt. Teaching is the home of soft (and not so soft) sexism. The principal who hired…

that's what i was going to say. i am a journalist and if i had to sit through this, my lower jaw would be on the floor, or i would be so totally disgusted that i would get all confrontational and pit bullish...

just like a game of whack-a-mole ...

my mom was in her last months of pancreatic cancer and people kept telling her to stop eating sugar that feeds the tumors. she knew she was dying, and it annoyed the shit out of her that, after having 3/4 of her stomach removed, people were still telling her what to eat. Like anyone wants to spend the last brief…

i know some moms who would post that on facebook for his birthday. wider audience.

you gotta love patriarchy...

here is a mission to mars getting ready to go ... bless you all for bringing me back to why i am not a mother! i definitely was this daughter. it is a cruel twist of nature that mothers and daughters go through puberty and peri menopause together. This, too, shall pass, folks.

there is a mission to mars getting ready to go ... bless you all for bringing me back to why i am not a mother! it is a cruel twist of nature that mothers and daughters go through puberty and peri menopause together. This, too, shall pass, folks.

that was my mom ... bless your heart!

that is going to be a great story someday. you can tell it at his rehearsal dinner when he gets married. things are not as they seem. love that.

this is one awful time for you, sweetheart. I've been there. Be good to yourself this holiday and do things that comfort you. if you need to stay in bed and read all day and not be with anyone, do it. it is your gift to yourself. you are healing. i promise, one day things will be so much better.