I read constantly as a young boy and all the way through adolescence - encyclopedias, fiction, even a bit of poetry - I was an avid writer as well. I spent a good deal of time in the middle school library, checking out books of ghost stories, historical fiction, etc.
Yet, teenagehood being what it often is, I lost interest in reading and mired in video games (not that video games are bad, I love them still) and depression - though I still continued to write. I could not, at the time nor later in life, understand the idea that being a teenager was meant to be the best period in one's life. The notion still riles me and engenders in me nothing but disdain for its falseness.
A combination of neurological and situational maladies contributed to my deep melancholia and I still have that melancholy disposition to this day, though it is more now a permanent piece of my personality than an impediment to general happiness.
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
05 June 2012
01 January 2012
Stay-at-home
My New Minority Status
"You go into your classrooms, you shut the door, and you shut yourself off from your colleagues."
When I was a high school teacher the principal would often gently admonish the faculty in this way. In truth, he was right to do so.
In teaching, being isolated was easy to accomplish. For many of us, it was preferred. In a job where your students feel more like your colleagues than your fellow teachers it was easy to barrel through a day without even communicating with your fellows (except to commiserate, of course). Much of the time we didn't even want our fellow teachers' input or attention - our lesson plans were our own, our methods were our own.
I now find myself in a profession even more isolated in nature - that of the stay-at-home parent.
I could say "stay-at-home dad" but really the job is difficult for either side of the gender line.
Still, though, I'm rare. Here's a little statistic from the federal government:
"You go into your classrooms, you shut the door, and you shut yourself off from your colleagues."
When I was a high school teacher the principal would often gently admonish the faculty in this way. In truth, he was right to do so.
In teaching, being isolated was easy to accomplish. For many of us, it was preferred. In a job where your students feel more like your colleagues than your fellow teachers it was easy to barrel through a day without even communicating with your fellows (except to commiserate, of course). Much of the time we didn't even want our fellow teachers' input or attention - our lesson plans were our own, our methods were our own.
I now find myself in a profession even more isolated in nature - that of the stay-at-home parent.
I could say "stay-at-home dad" but really the job is difficult for either side of the gender line.
Still, though, I'm rare. Here's a little statistic from the federal government:
158,000 - estimated number of stay-at-home dads in 2009. These married fathers with children younger than 15 have remained out of the labor force for at least one year primarily so they can care for the family while their wives work outside the home. These fathers cared for 290,000 children. Among these stay-at-home dads, 59 percent had two or more children, and 57 percent had an annual family income of $50,000 or more.
This seems to have remained constant according to more recent numbers released in the Current Population Survey in March 2011.
How Did I Get Here?
I'll pretend as though some of the people who read this blog do not know me personally and, therefore, do not know how I came to be a stay-at-home dad. Indulge me, it helps keep the narrative going.
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