Teaching and Table-Waiting by tristero

Teaching and Table-Waiting 

by tristero

Brittany Bronson, in the New York Times:

On the first day of the fall semester, I left campus from an afternoon of teaching anxious college freshmen and headed to my second job, serving at a chain restaurant off Las Vegas Boulevard. The switch from my professional attire to a white dress shirt, black apron and tie reflected the separation I attempt to maintain between my two jobs. Naturally, sitting at the first table in my section was one of my new students, dining with her parents… 

... my part-time work in the Vegas service industry has produced three times more income than my university teaching. (I’ve passed up the health benefits that come with full-time teaching, a luxury foreign to the majority of adjuncts at other universities, to make time for my blue-collar work.)

In short:

You wait tables? You're gonna need at least a second job.

You teach college? You're gonna need at least a second job.

You trick poor suckers into investing in elaborate Ponzi schemes like subprime mortgages? You spend the rest of your life complaining about the decline in service at private jetports.

Trickle down, indeed. With a big emphasis on trickle.

And a bigger emphasis on staying down.

BTW, Bronson's article was a terrific read. I hope she writes more.



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