Small Strokes Big Oaks

How and why do I choose to write/post what I do?  That is a very good question.  Let me put one thing out here right off the bat: I am a teacher – a high school English teacher to be exact.  As a teacher, I am somewhat of a public figure; as a high school teacher specifically, I work with kids who are probably more tech savvy than I am.  Of course, my views do not represent those of my workplace, and I have no intent of sharing this blog with everyone there.  However, it is always possible that someone stumbles upon this blog, so I want to share a bit about my motivation and my policies.  I’ve always said that, to avoid burnout, teachers must have something in their lives besides teaching, and this is my something.  I find blogging here personally fulfilling in a different way than teaching, and it exercises my mind and my writing skills in ways that are important to me.  In order to keep a good blog, though, I’ve imposed some limitations so we don’t all get carried away.

My blog ground rules:
1) I don’t swear. Or I try not to.  I know swearing in blogs can be seen as women taking control of language that they have been encouraged not to use by men.  I appreciate that.  I just don’t think it’s necessary to make a point.  And I don’t tolerate the over use of vulgar language from commenters.  I reserve the right to edit and remove any comments that violate this rule.  I will try my best to take out any vulgarity and keep the integrity of your comment, but if you’re just being mean, that’s not cool.

2) My last name does not appear on this blog. I don’t know why that matters, but it does for some reason.  I don’t want people Googling me and finding everything about my life on the internet.  I think that is creepy.  Maybe if I publish something and become famous I’ll change my mind about this, but I doubt it.

3) This blog is not overtly political. You may think I’m a bad feminist because of this, but I will not post anything here (written by me or written by others) about super-controversial topics.  You all know the kinds of topics I’m talking about here, so I won’t run down the ENTIRE list, but one of my favorite coworkers from my last job used to tell her students that, when it came to writing topics, there was to be “no booze, no drugs, no sex, no God, no wackos.” I follow sort of the same idea here.  I don’t write about this stuff, and I don’t post links about this stuff.  I understand the political issues feminism wrestles with and the rights feminists fight for, and I respect that.  I hold my own ideas and would be happy to discuss them with you in private, but the point of this blog is not political.

My comments ground rules:
1) Any identifying marker will be removed from your comments.  Please do not post my last name or any information about my employment or my family in the comments.  I will remove it.

2) Any links to webpages that are not “PG” or under will be removed from your comments.  I know many of you maintain websites that are controversial in nature.  Because of my status as a teacher, I must remove those links.

3) Any language that is not “PG” or under will be removed from your comments.  I’ll try to do this without ruining the integrity of your comment, but if issues arise, I will simply remove your comment all together.  That may sound harsh, but I don’t have time to rewrite comments.  You may feel free to rewrite and resubmit, though. 🙂

My hope for this blog is that it helps empower women (young and old and everywhere in between) to do what they feel is right, and to know that they are not alone.  I hope that, by sharing some of my experiences without talking politics, I can share with people the personal side of feminism – what women think about, talk about, struggle with, and do on a daily basis that sometimes has larger, political implications, but more often than not feels intensely individual.  It is, in this way, that I hope to make a few small strokes of my own.