work

i've been kicking around why i'm so dissatisfied with education lately. there are the myriad reasons that i've been venting about for the last 4+ years. you know them well, especially if you live them as a teacher. those are the reasons that i may try to change if i have my way in my future.

here's some more personal reasons that became glaring on my move up to the big city.

1) the lack of men. in college, the joke was, "you're just an education major to meet women." that couldn't have been further from the truth because the majority of the teachers-to-be had no designs on ever dating, much less marrying another teacher. now, i get the standard, "aww! that's so cute," which is not necessarily the best way to make a female a) respect you, or b) date you. i didn't have nearly as big a problem with it in gainesville. i had my own friends outside of work, and the women i worked with were anti-women to some extent. they could talk about football. i never felt overwhelmed by the number of women surrounding me at any time. maybe it's because i got along so well with the men that i used to work with. i find i have little in common with many men who are in teaching or around schools, and it really gets tiring having the same tired conversations with the ones i encounter outside of my school.

2) i don't know if this is a teaching thing per se, but i don't like feeling like i'm married to my job. this might just be a growing up, living in a city thing. there is a much greater expectation up here to be constantly connected to the school and parents up here. i'm already putting in 10 hour days more often than not. (my colleagues rarely talk about lives outside of school. i barely have time for one!) for those kind of hours and that kind of commitment, maybe i should have a few more chips to stack. then again, that's not exactly why i got into teaching...