Thinking Back over My Career
Mrdreamjeans has suggested a topic by asking how satisfied I am with my work/job. Of course, I am long past regular workdays. I retired early at age 62 in 2003 at the end of the first semester from an Oak Cliff high school because I was miserable in that particular setting and had absolutely no administrative support. I am not sorry. It was the right thing to do at the time. It was killing me. Of course, delaying until the more standard age of 65 would have given me a slightly larger monthly Social Security check, but who is to know how many of those I will live to draw anyway?
Of course, the fact that Charlie and I are a couple with shared income and expenses makes it less critical how much of a pension I can plan on to pay my bills. In fact, though it's not directly related to my work career, the biggest change in my life circumstances was meeting Charlie back in 2001. I tease him that he is no longer a kid now that he turned 40 in September.
Coming back to Texas in 1999 was not a career move as much as it was to look for a new setting and to keep my brother in Irving from having to deal with our aging, widowed father all by himself. It also, somewhat oddly, allowed me a new setting to explore what it might be like to be an out gay man. Of all places! Back home in Texas! Among my Baptist forebears! In the neighborhood of evangelical Christianity--something that would have seemed natural 50 years ago. It's not all bad, but the antics of some make some old familiar labels leave a bad taste in my mouth.
I began with a job with the Fort Worth Independent School District at North Side High School in a special magnet program for students interested in pursuing careers in the medical professions. Of course, like most such special programs, the teachers have to take a number of regular students as well. They usually wind up being the majority. I was there for two years only. The last few months I was on leave because I said, "God damn it" once in an understandable moment of frustration. Actually that seems somewhat silly with all the facts laid out on the table. At the end of the year I decided not to return and to substitute for a while. Going from school to school, situation to situation, classroom to classroom can be a really big eye opener to what is going on in education these days.
I was, in fact, at a middle school in Mansfield on 9/11. When a student ran in and said to turn on the TV, of course, I doubted the message at first. Before long, school was being closed, parents were picking up their kids, etc. How could I ever forget that day?
Then I decided to return to full time in Dallas ISD, where the pay scale and bonuses seem a bit ridiculous. It was not a good job, but I got paid a signing bonus and an extra bonus for being fluent in Spanish. I was making more money than I ever had, but it was far from my favorite teaching job. Non-students wandered into the classroom from the street. I took to locking my door and was called insubordinate for doing it. I could write a book on how uncomfortable it was working there.
After retirement I returned to subbing. I subbed first in Arlington ISD and then later in Hurst-Euless-Bedford (HEB) ISD. I think I got a fairly good idea in which ways suburban schools differ from those in the downtown urban areas. I was willing to take any assignment. One of the most fun was a month-long stint I did for a high school friend who was out for medical tests.She had a pre-K class that included a set of quintuplets. One thing I did not know at the time was that I was making too much money to be getting my Social Security and wound up having to pay that back several years later. Ultimately I gave up there as well because I got in trouble at an HEB high school for questioning several students who arrived substantially late en mass and very. I said, "Is there some reason that all of the black students have permission to come late?" Ridiculous that the administration allowed them to make a big deal out of it. I was ready to quit anyway. That was probably 2005.
I keep myself more than busy these days with all kinds of volunteering. Among them have been as a reading buddy at a grade school, at the Fort Worth Zoo, in a program for the homeless, at church, etc. More recently I've become a facilitator for the mandatory GLBT Awareness class for all City of Fort Worth employees that grew out of the settlement over the incident at the Rainbow Lounge. I find this experience particularly rewarding and generally feel appreciated and respected.
More, later. We'll look back at the beginning.
Of course, the fact that Charlie and I are a couple with shared income and expenses makes it less critical how much of a pension I can plan on to pay my bills. In fact, though it's not directly related to my work career, the biggest change in my life circumstances was meeting Charlie back in 2001. I tease him that he is no longer a kid now that he turned 40 in September.
Coming back to Texas in 1999 was not a career move as much as it was to look for a new setting and to keep my brother in Irving from having to deal with our aging, widowed father all by himself. It also, somewhat oddly, allowed me a new setting to explore what it might be like to be an out gay man. Of all places! Back home in Texas! Among my Baptist forebears! In the neighborhood of evangelical Christianity--something that would have seemed natural 50 years ago. It's not all bad, but the antics of some make some old familiar labels leave a bad taste in my mouth.
I began with a job with the Fort Worth Independent School District at North Side High School in a special magnet program for students interested in pursuing careers in the medical professions. Of course, like most such special programs, the teachers have to take a number of regular students as well. They usually wind up being the majority. I was there for two years only. The last few months I was on leave because I said, "God damn it" once in an understandable moment of frustration. Actually that seems somewhat silly with all the facts laid out on the table. At the end of the year I decided not to return and to substitute for a while. Going from school to school, situation to situation, classroom to classroom can be a really big eye opener to what is going on in education these days.
I was, in fact, at a middle school in Mansfield on 9/11. When a student ran in and said to turn on the TV, of course, I doubted the message at first. Before long, school was being closed, parents were picking up their kids, etc. How could I ever forget that day?
Then I decided to return to full time in Dallas ISD, where the pay scale and bonuses seem a bit ridiculous. It was not a good job, but I got paid a signing bonus and an extra bonus for being fluent in Spanish. I was making more money than I ever had, but it was far from my favorite teaching job. Non-students wandered into the classroom from the street. I took to locking my door and was called insubordinate for doing it. I could write a book on how uncomfortable it was working there.
After retirement I returned to subbing. I subbed first in Arlington ISD and then later in Hurst-Euless-Bedford (HEB) ISD. I think I got a fairly good idea in which ways suburban schools differ from those in the downtown urban areas. I was willing to take any assignment. One of the most fun was a month-long stint I did for a high school friend who was out for medical tests.She had a pre-K class that included a set of quintuplets. One thing I did not know at the time was that I was making too much money to be getting my Social Security and wound up having to pay that back several years later. Ultimately I gave up there as well because I got in trouble at an HEB high school for questioning several students who arrived substantially late en mass and very. I said, "Is there some reason that all of the black students have permission to come late?" Ridiculous that the administration allowed them to make a big deal out of it. I was ready to quit anyway. That was probably 2005.
I keep myself more than busy these days with all kinds of volunteering. Among them have been as a reading buddy at a grade school, at the Fort Worth Zoo, in a program for the homeless, at church, etc. More recently I've become a facilitator for the mandatory GLBT Awareness class for all City of Fort Worth employees that grew out of the settlement over the incident at the Rainbow Lounge. I find this experience particularly rewarding and generally feel appreciated and respected.
More, later. We'll look back at the beginning.