A serial entrepreneur friend forwarded an email from a local 8th grade teacher:
I have decided to take up a new hobby as a way to get outside and stay healthy and I thought why not try to run again?! I ran a half marathon 5 years ago and have tried to avoid running since because I didn’t train properly and hurt my foot. Now I know to stretch before and after so I figured now’s the time!! It’s been nice yesterday and today and I hope the nice weather continues!!
I have also been doing a lot of “virtual” time with my family and friends. It is very hard not to see anyone but this makes it feel a little easier for me. As an update, my dog no longer barks at people when we go on walks so she is getting better behaved which is also a positive!!
I miss you all very much, it makes me realize how much I love my job (which I already knew!!) and how important you are all to me. I hope you’re all taking care and finding ways to stay busy!
His commentary:
I’d love that fucking job too.
(Our teachers are still getting paid at 100 percent, but need not provide online instruction; see “The economic inequality of coronavirus”)
Weird seeing a teacher write runon sentences without any commas. Does she still pronounce the letter T? Millennial english is so different from 40 years ago.
Only 1 man needs to run half marathons nowadays: the lone athlete still going to the Tokyo olympics, Philip Greenspun.
Jokes on them. A lot of kids ain’t going back to regular school. The one thing their gold plated contracts can’t protect them from is a lack of enrolled students.
Your friend is FOS…he wouldn’t want that job. Not the kids. Not the pay.
+1
I’ve been in an elementary school classroom as a volunteer. I am exhausted after an hour.
School teaching must be the only job left available for women after the men gobble up all the good bricklaying and plumbing jobs.
Of course, it’s nonsense. If he would love that fucking job, has he started looking into applying for a teaching job? Generally, this kind of dopey animosity towards teachers is just part of the pro-business, pro-rich guy, screw the middle class philosophy. Most teachers are both government employees and union members, so they’re major villains in that world view.
Vince: It would be illegal for the school district to employ him because, though he is an Ivy League graduate, he does not have a teaching credential. Also, there are hundreds of applicants for every open position! See https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2015/03/01/teacher-jobs-in-massachusetts-new-jobs-for-healthcare-gov-programmers/
> I didn’t train properly and hurt my foot. Now I know to stretch before and after so I figured now’s the time!!
Pro-tips for your friend:
– Stretching has little or nothing to do with avoiding running injuries.
– Injuries come from the wrong shoes (runners love to complain about shoes). Its worth the $+50% cost to buy shoes from specialty running store where they assess your gait + supination/pronation, then sell you an appropriate shoe (bring old shoes to store so they can see the wear pattern on the sole).
– Injuries come from doing too much too quickly. Assess your condition, then increase training distances 10% per week (or less); pushing harder than that usually ends badly, often just before the planned event/race.
– Injuries also come from weak muscles. Supplement running with strength training for legs and hips. Adding 3x(50 jump lunges + 50 jumps w 45lbs + 20 bodyweight deadlift) 2x/week to marathon training greatly improved my post-race recovery.