[Katie]

I’m a teacher with 13 years experience, from college, to high school, to middle school. I teach middle school, and love it. I am probably insane, but my sanity is what keeps me from going crazy. 😉 Teaching isn’t work to me; it’s being with friends all day long who are as delighted to see me as I am delighted to see them. What I see coming from a lot of these posts are a huge desire to help others succeed, but a lack of understanding in some crucial areas, such as what motivates and de-motivates learners; how to work within a large bureacracy; how to talk to kids so that kids will listen, and listen so kids will talk; and how to get parents on your side. All of this is possible, but experience is the best teacher. What happens usually is that a new teacher comes in with lots of enthusiasm, very few skills, little practice at classroom management, and has yet to find his/her own teaching style. It is absolutely a trial by fire to stay in education and find your own groove. Given some good kids and parents, some sane administrators and a few years of trial and error, it is possible. And once you find your groove, there is nothing like being a teacher — if this is your vocation. We all have our talents. If you’re in education, the very best book I can recommend is Harry Wong’s The First Days of School for classroom management. Get CM down pat, and you can teach; everyone can relax and feel at ease, and learning can take place.

User Detail :  

Name : Katie, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Episcopalian, Age : 37, City : Los Angeles, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : teacher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Katie]

I find it hard to believe that a baby boomer is asking if it’s okay to contribute to the delinquency of a minor, if ‘it’s okay if they get drunk’. Wow, what’s going on here? What you’re talking about, letting minor children get drunk, is a crime. However, having a glass of wine with dinner is cultural and can be appropriate. But let’s back up a minute and assume that this is simply awkwardly asked. Children in France and Italy grow up drinking wine with meals. Perhaps this is what is meant? From what I’ve heard eventually the kids get to be teens, want to get drunk, so the parents let them get rip-snorting drunk — at home. The parents mix alcohol and make sure the kid gets incredibly drunk — not drunk enough to die, but drunk enough to feel HORRIBLE the next day. Usually that’s all it takes. And, significantly, there is less alcohol abuse in these societies. But if you are asking permission from society to let your kids run wild and you want to abdicate your parental responsibilities… I’d say think again.

User Detail :  

Name : Katie, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Episcopalian, Age : 37, City : Los Angeles, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : teacher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Katie]

Some background: my late mother was a teacher; my sister is a teacher; my aunt and uncle are retired. She was a teacher, and he was a principal. I didn’t think at first that I wanted anything to do with education, but fell into it, and realized it was in my blood. So here I am, 13 years later, teaching middle school and loving it. I’ve also taught high school and college. That said, I moved from Louisana where I made $11k a year with a MA and 2 years’ experience. Here in California, I make $50k more. Life is unbelievably better. My father said, either change jobs or move to where the money is, so I moved. Plus, it’s more important for me to make middle-class money and have great vacations, than it is to make fabulous money but have no time. To be a teacher is more than a job; it’s a vocation or a calling. You have to have specific skills, and yet you have to be incredibly adaptable and resilient at the same time. Teachers make the most decisions per MINUTE than any other profession. Not everyone is cut out for this. Those who can adapt and bounce back and change tactics, who can listen and respond appropriately, are good teachers. Yes, some ignorant people (usually those with intellectual insecurity, or issues about strong, articulate, highly educated people) still denigrate teachers. Without us, where would society be? Having said that, I think that because what we do has such value that mere money can’t match it, some people don’t know how to express their gratitude Personally, I never put up with anyone telling me that teachers are unappreciated and not paid well. I personally — and all teachers I know — don’t hesitate to fight, scream, kick and bite to get the recognition we naturally deserve. To hell with stereotypes! I’m appreciated as I should be, and I always speak up — without being a control freak, either. As with everything, there’s always a happy medium.

User Detail :  

Name : Katie, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Episcopalian, Age : 37, City : Los Angeles, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : teacher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Katie]

First of all, I’m childfree, not childles; this is way different from being childless, which implies wanting children and not being able to have any; being CF means not wanting any, avoiding pregnancy, enjoying living life without children. As for negative reactions, we live in a world of 6,500,000,000 — that’s 6.5 BILLION. The earth has too many people as it is, and in rich nations like the US, having just one child here is like having 2 in the UK, 3 in central Europe or 10 in a Third World country. Simply put, we use up a disproportionate amount of the earth’s resources. Also, people may feel disgust for extremely large families because they realize (probably at a gut level) that the more people there are being born, the more competition there is for food, resources, housing, shelter, jobs, etc. Having more than 2 children is over-replacement. We have been being replaced since the 19th century in numbers alone. Adding more people only causes stress to the environment, the job market, the housing market, etc. Given these facts, trust me — no one is envious. No one. Having a huge family is nothing but ego and pride bordering on hubris. I personally cannot imagine what it would be like to think that the world needed 10 more of me! An incredible thought. One of me is plenty. One last thought: having children because your church/religion says it is the thing to do is in a way playing the eugenics hands. More of us, less of them. I am more and more beginning to see religion as an insane meme that promotes lack of critical thinking, lack of forward planning, lack of concern over the here and now in favor of some indeterminate future reward. Personally I think if people REALLY cared about themselves, the earth and their neighbors, they’d think seriously about all the reality that having children includes, like shit, piss, vomit, screaming, lots of money to raise them, constant worry, and the fact that sometimes no matter what you do, some kids don’t turn out to be winners; some children grow up and go to jail, deal drugs, kill people. I think people should think seriously about everything that parenthood implies, because the Kodak moments are a very small part of it all. I hope this helps. I am always intrigued by the parental mindset; it is a sensibility and a temperament vastly different from my own.

User Detail :  

Name : Katie, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Episcopalian, Age : 37, City : Los Angeles, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : teacher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Katie]

Hi, Alfonso. I’m originally from Louisiana, but have lived in Los Angeles since 1997. I’ve traveled in Europe and in the US, so I’ve been around a bit. I’ve also chatted online for years and years. One thing that people from the North do that no one in the South or West does is a particular greeting. They will say, ‘So how is Katie today?’ This sounds SO bizarre to me! It sounds cold, a little distancing and patronizing, almost something you would say to a child. This is just my own reaction, and isn’t representative of anyone else but me. Everyone else that I know just uses ‘you’ as in, ‘How are you today?’ Using the third person when talking to someone directly is a sure sign of a Yankee. I chatted with someone from the Northern US who used ‘be’ in a strange way too — Maine? Connecticut? I don’t remember. He said things like, ‘How do you be?’ and other usages which struck me as strange and highly cultural or perhaps even uneducated. The only other affect about people from the North that I’ve noticed on any semi-consistent basis is talking fast. I’ve been accused since childhood of being a ‘secret Yankee’ because I talk fast (and think and act fast!) LOL

User Detail :  

Name : Katie, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Episcopalian, Age : 37, City : Los Angeles, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : teacher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Katie]

Good question. As a matter of principle, teachers urge students to go beyond curse words and exercise real vocabulary power. After all, anyone can use curse words but cursing doesn’t make you look mature; it just like you grew up in a barn without any proper rearing. If you use a word *as* a word (ie, ‘what is the meaning of ___’) then it’s being used in a whole other context. You also have to guard against hate/bias speech too, since words don’t just have the dictionary denotation, but they also have emotional connotations too. Plus, it’s not only what you say, it’s how you say it as well. Hope this answers your question.

User Detail :  

Name : Katie, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Episcopalian, Age : 37, City : Los Angeles, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : teacher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Katie]

Call me elitist, but I would not date or marry someone outside my class. I divorced someone who was blue-collar and had only some college, while I’m white-collar, upper-middle class and have a master’s degree plus.

For me it’s the issue of sensibility: I really disliked my working-class ex-husband’s sense of fatalism, his poor-mouthing, martyr stance of being exploited by the haves while he was a have-not. I disliked his complacency and lack of taking advantage of opportuniities for advancement (he was a college police officer; every year he was given three free credits and never took a class).

I met my current husband online, on an e-mail discussion list for literature. What I like about him is his literary temperament and sensibility, and his creativeness. His education and his being extremely well-read make him more open to other options in life, as well as a better creative thinker.

Also, my ex-husband was incredibly insecure and basically asexual. (I think he was clinically depressed and possibly latently gay but couldn’t deal with it.) I’ve found for myself, having grown up in the South, that blue-collar, lower-middle class and below people are extremely rigid about gender roles and sexuality. For example, the more education one has, the more one is open to and willing to experiment with sex. As always, there are exceptions; people can’t be classified. But in summary, for me it’s a matter of temperament, sensibility and cultural programming … and let’s not forget money: The more you have, the more options in life you have. The less you have, the fewer options. And poverty or wealth tends to colors one’s perception of the world.

User Detail :  

Name : Katie, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Episcopalian, Age : 37, City : Los Angeles, State : CA, Country : United States, Occupation : teacher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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