new thread
We seem to get a lot of posts here on the board concerning having to cut one's hair for school, jobs, from pressure by school boards, family, friends, etc.
Well, I have a glimmer of hope to brighten everyone's day. I can't remember what I have posted about this and what I haven't, but last spring I was awarded a teaching assistantship at my university's English department. This basically means that I get to teach and get free tuition for my own classes I am taking and get insurance coverage. I think the school likes to have teaching assistants too because it's cheaper than hiring full-folks. At any rate, I was happy to have the opportunity and the chance to gain experience. I got the position with long hair. No problems. So this week is the first week of class, the beginning of fall semester. We have had several meetings for all the faculty, part time, full time, etc. Amazing to see was two other male teachers, older than myself, but with hair a good bit longer than mine. Also I see other male faculty from other departments, long haired as well. Just proves that in the right place, long hair is acceptable. Jobs can be had. A living can be made. No one has said a thing to me about it, and I really hope this message doesn't "jinx" my luck!!!
Oh, and I am in Georgia, in the USA, the "deep south." I guess maybe everyone here is not chained by the mentality we have seen in the several cases that Victor has posted lately about sever hair restrictions on students, etc. Clayton is also a right about his statement on Louisiana. All these states get a bad rap in many cases, sometimes rightly so, but most times, the story is blown out of proportion or not representative of the greater sanity that pervades the region.
As requested by some over the past days, I will try to do an update when I get settled into this new routine, not in the truck, without sunglass (aeros for John).
Thanks, Matt B.
What are you trying to say mate :-)!
Cheers,
John.B
Hey John,
Try to read it loud... Might help, it's English :)
Cheers, Tom
I only know olde english lol!
Thought so :p
Keep cool, man :)
Gód dag!
LÃðmann ne wadeð ne rÃdeð hors.
He doesn't do what or ride a horse?
How did you type the letter eth as well? Can you type a thorn?
I don't know how he did it, but I have a special keyboard that lets you type those and many other characters using a compose key sequence:
http://vt100.net/docs/vt320-uu/chapter5.html
I suppose you could also search for a web page that already has the character, then cut and paste.
"A sailor neither walks nor rides a horse." It's a non-sensical reply, but about the extent of my Old English.
Whenever I need to type characters not on the keyboard, the easiest way to do it, for me, is to go into Word and go to Insert and then symbols which gives you about every "extra" letter or letter with any sort of marking over it, then just paste that into here. I don't think these characters will show up on everyone's computer though. However, yours must be configured like mine.
I think I can even type the thorn: Þ þ, both upper and lower case. I don't know if Greek and Cyrillic will show up here or not though. I know some Devenegari will though.
Matt B.
Very good! It sounds like our verb to wade may come from the OE verb to walk (wadan, presumably). Or not. It's easy to jump to conclusions.
I always wondered if git comes from OE gitsere? Although I'm not sure if you would know what a git is, but basically it's a mean spirited person, whereas AFAIK gitsere meant a miser, so specifically mean w/ money. Not sure if anyone outside London even uses the word git.
Hi Matt,
I am glad to hear that long hair is not that much of an issue any more in - at least - some parts of the US.
For me (even though I am travelling a lot in the US, mainly in California), the US remains a mystery, if not schizoprhenic in certain ways... Many styles were born in the US but are not established in their own environment. How many american singers and models have long hair and are very well admired but would not get a chance to get a job in a 'normal' environment whithout changing their appearance.
One more or less recent trend is the Emo style. Just go to stickam.com and see that maybe 50% of the young guys there are emos. This style spreads around the world, in America, here in Switzerland, in Moscow, Japan, etc.... What culture is it that makes these styles grow that fast and at the end does not accept them in 'normal' and business life? I don't understand this. Really, I don't.
Btw. I always thought that your avatar shows you in an airplane, not in a truck :) Maybe it's the glasses :)
I am a private pilot (US license) and I am wondering whether there are some other private pilots among us??
I hope my English was good enough to make my thoughts understandable... If not, tell me and I have to think a bit longer before writing...
Cheers,
--Tom
"the US remains a mystery, if not schizoprhenic in certain ways"
I hear you on that one. With everyday that passes by I see more and more kooks all around me. Must be the chemicals in the fast food..........
As Evil Knevil once said before trying to jump across the Grand Canyon in his Motorbike: "With everyday that passes, the biggest mystery to me is why nobody else has the guts to try to unravel the mysteries of the everyday in certain ways." (Or something to that effect as I seem to recall.) And with that he sped towards the Canyon at over 200mph, soared high into the air and then fell hundreds of feet downwards breaking both arms, 7 fingers, both ankles, one of his legs, and fracturing over 2/3rds of his already broken 3 times before back.
Thank you, that's certainly a great glimmer of hope! I'm hoping academia is as forgiving to me when I apply to graduate schools in about a year. As another example to share, I work in a laboratory at a medical school campus (just as an aide) and I see many more long-haired PhD folk than I had anticipated. Maybe they share my opinion that long hair and scientists make you look even more...scientific? Thank you again for posting your experience.
That's great. My professor for biomechanics chose me to be a TA regardless of my long hair. I think if you have the skills and are very personable, no one thinks twice about you having long hair.
As I said to Clayton it's great to see such wonderful expections!
Cheers,
John.B
Congrats dude, im in the south too :P
West of Atlanta to be exact :)
it's so cool being a college professor with long hair
Best Wishes
Josh
It's good to hear they are not discriminating everywhere about longhairs. Good luck on the job.
That's good to hear Matt and I hope the teaching and your classes go well.
We look forward to seeing your update as it's been a while, and yes loose the car and sunglasses as they hide your hair. The last thing you want to do is to hide your mane.
Take care
Kevin
I think colleges and universities tend to be one of the most tolerant work environments as far as these sorts of things go. So, unless this is a conservative religious university (like Oral Roberts, Liberty U, Pepperdine or Brigham Young) or a business or professional school, I'm not at all surprised that they let you keep your long hair. High schools are a different story.
In fact, one of the fist long-haired guys I ever met was one of my freshman physics lab teaching assistants in college. He had a spectacular mane of red hair all the way down to his waist!
Matt,
Great optimism here. :-)
I work I.T. for a public school system. I've been told by upper management that my hair has and will never be an issue and that people only have nice things to say about me.
To me, hard work and dedication are far more important then hair.
I am sure I have given long hair a good rep at my place of work.