A comment on yesterday's whiny entry asked, "I wonder why it is you stay in Baltimore." Certainly a fair question, and it's certainly something that I've thought about a lot. I'm feeling pretty let down by the city lately. Maybe I just miss the "Believe" signs, but it just seems like the city has lost its verve or something. It's just so trashy, so crime-ridden, so disorganized, so apathetic in so many ways. And my family is far away. Why is it that I stay here?
It's mostly about the job. I think I really have a unique teaching job. The more I take classes up at Towson, and listen to those county teachers talk about their horrible jobs, where they have a mandated curriculum where people check whether you're on page 172 the day you're supposed to be on page 172, the more lucky I feel. Could I find a job where I can do the work I'm doing now, somewhere else? I don't think one exists in Michigan, especially in that current job market. Maybe somewhere in the Chicago area, maybe. I'll be here next year and the year after (BCPSS requires this for its reimbursement of my tuition costs), but after that, the epiphany probably won't be in Baltimore anymore. We'll see, though, of course.
Here is what I would look for in a school, which are all things I have now:
1. An International Baccalaureate school: I think the program is great, and I know I've developed some systems that work very well with it.
2. A school where the parents are almost always supportive
3. A school with an at-risk population
4. A school with kids who want to do well, where rigorous standards are set and met
5. A school where you can get away with teaching almost anything, as long as you can justify it according to state standards
6. A school with a lot of flexibility of curriculum, where I get a huge say in what I decide to do in my classroom for any given day
7. A school with a lot of great young teachers, who challenge me to be a better teacher. I literally work with two Nationally Board certified teachers, plus several others who are just great
8. A decent pay, for a teacher with my experience
9. A school where I get to coach baseball
10. A school where I have some clout. I'm committed, people know it, and my words hold some weight.
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15 comments:
Do you think you might in part be displacing some other dissatisfaction/disappointment onto the city?
Depending on where and how you look at Baltimore, it isn't "so trashy, so crime-ridden, so disorganized, so apathetic."
Glad you'll be here this year and two more at least. Maybe next year will be better when you won't have to take classes or work at the restaurant.
Anon #1: Definitely. I think our perceptions of everything is colored by the tint of the glasses through which we view it all.
Anon #2: I'm not throwing the towel in on this year yet. It's actually been a terrific year in the classroom so far.
- EiB
Move to NJ. You can do all those things, and live close to NYC.
I have all of those things. We have different "at-risk" students than your area, but we still have a high drop-out rate...to the local farms and mills. We've been able to recently get out our high school up to an 80% graduation rate (which for us has been huge).
I love, love, love my school and I couldn't imagine doing anything else. :)
DanaElayne
Did they erect the sign between the time that you parked your car and when you came back to retrieve it? If not, you really should just accept responsibility and not pawn this off as Baltimore trying to screw you.
You don't get to Northwood or Taylor Heights or Harford Road neighborhoods too much, do you? You musn't. You wouldn't think the entire city was trashy, if you did. But you're in school and working, so I don't imagine you do. But after reading this blog post, I can't imagine you would if you had the time anyway.
Whoa there, last anonymous. This guy makes a (in my opinion) massive effort to stay positive, is upset in a few posts, and then he gets your condenscension? Woe upon the person who can't maintain a constantly sunny outlook, apparently. Sheesh.
ditto
Yeah, I know I was hard on Baltimore there, maybe too hard, but it was just what I was feeling when I wrote it. And, actually, I lived off of Harford Rd. until a few months ago, and still live very close to it, and work and play in the Northwood Area all the time. I know these parts of the city like the back of my hand. Is it all trashy and crime-ridden? Definitely not. And that's not what I said.
As for your parking ticket / taking responsibility point, you deserve no response except screw you. You're not a reasonable or ethical person if that's what you say to someone at that juncture.
Dana-elayne: In all your years of commenting, I had no idea you worked for an IB school. How cool!
To anon #1: Yeah...and where EIB is was supposed to be one of those better schools. There was new gang graffitti in the 3rd floor bathroom and on lockers today.
EIB: Where I'm considering there are at at risk kids as well as kids and parents who want to succeed, but I don't think there is I.B. The other stuff, particularly pay and standards seem good. My kid is in the system, and we are pleased ny and large...And the pay would be definitely more than a step up.
As for baseball...not sure. The county has a real active set of leagues for a wide range of ages and abilities (rec leagues as well as traveling teams). School coaching I'd have to look into, although a move might whet my apetite to get back to matside or one of my other previous coaching
incarnations if they were hiring.
-T.C.
No, really, nobody told you to park there, especially when there was a sign posted; then after receiving the ticket, to blame the city for enforcing the parking laws. What you should be mad about is the amount of outstanding tickets the city has. If they collected them all, maybe the city could spring for some more textbooks. That's something to say "screw you" over, not somebody reminding you that nobody told you to park there. Getting out of a ticket isn't your God-given right.
You did say that the city was so trashy, so crime-ridden, and disorganized. The first anon was right. But yay for you hanging out in Northwood and knowing those neighborhoods like the back of your hand. I applaud you. Most transplants probably wouldn't even go anywhere outside of "trendy areas".
If you didn't mean for your comments to lead somebody to believe you felt the entire city was a cesspool, filled with litterbugs, thugs, and inept governance, you should have been more specific as to where exactly you were speaking of --you're an English teacher, you can probably appreciate the need to be specific in one's writing-- since you're not writing in your own personal journal that nobody else reads and comments on (unless you don't mind being misunderstood, of course). But if that was just an emotion-filled, unfiltered rant after a bad time, so be it. We all have those days. Just don't expect somebody who might stumble across your rant not to return the same, especially when it sounds like you're being unreasonable and piling more on the city when clearly, the city wasn't parking your car in a zone where it might be ticketed.
Also, that is exactly what I say to somebody at that point. You only see my comments as unethical or unreasonable because the event holds alot of emotion (not that I blame you, considering the recent events you've spoken of). But if I was ranting and such, I'd hopefully come to my own senses and realize that I was being unreasonable; I wouldn't tell somebody who'd said the same to me, to go screw themselves, nor will I do that now.
No, really, nobody told you to park there, especially when there was a sign posted; then after receiving the ticket, to blame the city for enforcing the parking laws. What you should be mad about is the amount of outstanding tickets the city has. If they collected them all, maybe the city could spring for some more textbooks. That's something to say "screw you" over, not somebody reminding you that nobody told you to park there. Getting out of a ticket isn't your God-given right.
You did say that the city was so trashy, so crime-ridden, and disorganized. The first anon was right. But yay for you hanging out in Northwood and knowing those neighborhoods like the back of your hand. I applaud you. Most transplants probably wouldn't even go anywhere outside of "trendy areas".
If you didn't mean for your comments to lead somebody to believe you felt the entire city was a cesspool, filled with litterbugs, thugs, and inept governance, you should have been more specific as to where exactly you were speaking of --you're an English teacher, you can probably appreciate the need to be specific in one's writing-- since you're not writing in your own personal journal that nobody else reads and comments on (unless you don't mind being misunderstood, of course). But if that was just an emotion-filled, unfiltered rant after a bad time, so be it. We all have those days. Just don't expect somebody who might stumble across your rant not to return the same, especially when it sounds like you're being unreasonable and piling more on the city when clearly, the city wasn't parking your car in a zone where it might be ticketed.
Also, that is exactly what I say to somebody at that point. You only see my comments as unethical or unreasonable because the event holds alot of emotion (not that I blame you, considering the recent events you've spoken of). But if I was ranting and such, I'd hopefully come to my own senses and realize that I was being unreasonable; I wouldn't tell somebody who'd said the same to me, to go screw themselves, nor will I do that now.
Actually, as someone on the outside, I still think your remarks are unreasonable. Someone is upset about getting a parking ticket, at a place where the ticketing just changed, and - as he writes - the sign was placed at an unreasonable distance away, with no warning. You would actually tell someone at a low point in his life that, "Oh, well, who decided to park there?" Well, if that's the case, then you're just an asshole. There comes a point when the Golden Rule comes into play, and nasty anonymous comments really don't fall into the realm of decent human behavior.
Actually, I think I'm perfectly in the right for complaining about a poorly-marked parking sign that changed decades of parking policy in that area of Fells Point. At the very least, I would expect there to be signs throughout the block in question, not just facing the other way at the beginning of the block - when I didn't even come from that direction. I also think the city has an obligation to inform area businesses of the change, so that menially-paid employees can have a fair warning.
But your ridiculous use of the word "especially" makes it pretty clear whose side you're on.
And, as for dubbing your remarks unethical and unreasonable, I stand by them. If anyone, if they're in a bad spot in their life, if they're feeling down and out, comes to you in order to vent, or whatever, and you tell them that, then you're simply an asshole. And doing so in a cowardly, anonymous way on a personal blog is just the same. Who in the world takes a significant amount of time to craft a well-worded (though sterile) response anonymously on someone's personal blog, just to make them feel worse about a situation? I guess we know the answer.
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