As I start this post it’s just about 5 pm, but already to this point I’ve been able to visit the chiropractor in Long Beach (1 hour total), come home and chat with the wife and baby, go through the mail, change my clothes, spend a few minutes online, and it’s only 5 pm! Most people don’t even start to get home until 5 pm or later. Granted I might go in maybe an hour before some of those people, but I chalk this up to another great perk of being a teacher.

One of my students got me thinking today when she said “teachers don’t get paid enough!” When I asked her why she said because her mom is a teacher. I don’t know what her mom is smoking, but I wouldn’t do this job if I didn’t think I was adequately compensated. I made a choice my senior year in college that I didn’t want a career where I’d have to work until 8 pm every night in the cutthroat ad business. For a while I thought that it might be leading worship, but that wasn’t it. When I started substitute teaching though it all became very clear! Here’s a job where I can be my own boss, work literally half the year, have the same schedule as my wife, get 2.5 months off every year to spend with my kids, and get some guaranteed raises and stellar retirement to boot.

And with all that, I can say fairly confidently that I don’t LOVE teaching. I enjoy it, and I come home from work in a good mood and I don’t mind going in the morning, but I would much rather be AT HOME. I’d much rather be playing with the baby, hanging out with my wife, making feeble attempts at writing a novel, watching baseball, or editing home movies. Yes my career is rewarding, but it’s not what I live for. Instead it gives me the freedom to have the time to do all the other things I’d rather be doing.

So to the two or three people that read my blog and have not settled on a career, here’s some food for thought. As you decide what to do with your life, think about the things that make you happy, and then consider how that is impacted by potential career choices. If you can find a career that you love and you wake up excited for work everyday, then that’s totally awesome. But think about who you are as a person (type A/B, people pleaser, independent, etc) and find a career that meshes with your personality. If I was working at some big ad agency right now I have no doubt I’d still be happy, but I couldn’t be happier that I decided to change careers early on when it was still easy to do. So find something you love to do, and if you can’t do that, find a career that gives you the freedom to do the things you love.

Take a look. A man that underwent a sex change operation is back substitute teaching for elementary students as a "woman." I could harp on the fact that he’s being called a woman when he’s not. The article says he was married for 33 years with three kids, so I assume he ruined that marriage. Instead I will focus on what really matters: the students.

A complaint given by a parent was "I, as a parent, am appalled to have this issue brought into my child’s psychology." He couldn’t be more right. How do you explain to a 6 year old that Mr. McBeth decided to have his weiner cut off, and now he is Miss McBeth? Crazy liberals would argue that you do it with love, and that children should be raised with an open-mind. A logical conservative would say, "You don’t!" A child should’nt even know about this, let alone be taught by him.

The ACLU and crazy leftists constantly shout acceptance and tolerance for everything, and it’s getting old. When did cutting your weiner off become acceptable? Am I the only on that thinks this guy is INSANE? The fact that he paid someone to cut his weiner off makes him totally unqualified to teach, or even be in the same room as children. But the ACLU will go to court and tell us that this man is not deranged or mentally unstable, he’s just "different."

If you are offended by my repeated use of the word "wiener," I would be glad to change them all to "sausage."

Heads up to Tim for the good Blarg fodder.