Dress code

Zuleika, my roommate and co-intern, teaching a still life drawing class.

 

Building a pretty good branch fort in the woods across from school.

A nice adjustment for me in my new life is thinking about what to wear.  Those of you who went through UTEP with me know that the words "professional dress" can strike fear into any teacher's heart.  There is a certain pressure, especially in high-performing charter schools, to dress you like you work in an office as a way of showing you take your job seriously.  Of course, you also need to ensure you can bend over without your cleavage or lower back showing, raise your arms without exposing your midriff, and simultaneously stand all day in your chosen shoes without keeling over.

The Free School has a different implicit expectation about what it means to dress like you take your work seriously, and it applies to kids as well as teachers.  You need to wear clothes that could get dirty!  So everyone dresses comfortably, and I don't care about the kids seeing my armpit hair because they've seen armpit hair before and don't find it strange.  I still keep the cleavage under wraps I guess.