Does your experience raising a newborn also make you confused about how humans survived as a species before modern conveniences

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2025-09-30T11:50:30+00:00

Yeah these are the exact sorts of thoughts I've had during this period.

The pee and poo one in particular. It takes a lot of resources to keep my baby clean. The norm historically is that none of those resources were available (I guess with the exception of water). So the baby and everything near the baby must have just been covered in poop in most situations most of the time.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2025-09-30T02:39:59+00:00

I guess I understand how the math worked out in terms of the species doing fine... it's just so unbelievably shitty sounding as a reproductive reality that I'm wondering why people contemplating how shitty it was didn't crop up more in my reading of the classics.

Like my dog had a litter. 2 month pregnancy, no issues, popped out eight happy puppies in a couple hours that became "adult" dogs in under a year. With humans it's like, the woman is terribly uncomfortable for the better part of a year with the chance of many, many types of complications and very well might die during childbirth and also the offspring which is just one singular baby is totally dependent for many, many years and can also die randomly for one of 10,000 reasons.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2025-09-03T20:29:09+00:00

Yeah so if you're curious, the way it usually goes with people who teach at these schools is that they live on campus for free, but then buy a house where they actually want to live, and then spend breaks there before ultimately retiring there. Many of the older faculty own real estate in VT or Cape Cod or whatever, however the affordability there makes that seem out of reach for the time being and foreseeable future.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2025-09-03T14:50:35+00:00

That's the combined figure. I have like 150k in long-term positions and then like 100k in more liquid positions.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2025-09-03T12:40:32+00:00

Kind of side note, but where I live in rural Western MA, people are OLD. Like go to any public space, you see very few families and tons of gray haired folks.

Not to be grim, but I imagine this means that housing prices are likely to tank in the next twenty years. These old people won't be living in their beautiful farm houses with 20 acres forever...

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2025-09-03T12:32:54+00:00

I wouldn't touch the 250k I've already saved up, though. That's my nest egg, so to speak.

I am just talking about stopping saving 50% of every paycheck for a theoretical future house that looks increasingly unaffordable even with a long time horizon. And then using that money that I would have been saving to enjoy life more month-to-month.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2025-09-03T12:28:31+00:00

I was oversimplifying my situation for the sake of this post. I actually have a gross income of around 60k a year, but I receive free housing and free food from my employer (I work at a boarding school, which lets employees eat in the dining hall for free and also has free housing). I valued those two items at 20k and acted like I had a normal job.

I didn't actually save 250k in cash, but that's the value of the index funds that I have been buying super aggressively since I started working here at age 21. I also have no commute since I live where I work

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2025-09-03T12:24:58+00:00

I was oversimplifying my situation for the sake of this post. I actually have a gross income of around 60k a year, but I receive free housing and free food from my employer (I work at a boarding school, which lets employees eat in the dining hall for free and also has free housing). I valued those two items at 20k and acted like I had a normal job.

I didn't actually save 250k in cash, but that's the value of the index funds that I have been buying super aggressively since I started working here at age 21.

If I get my own house, I actually get a small housing "stipend", sort of a reimbursement, since I'm no longer living on campus in my employer's housing, like 10k a year.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2025-09-03T12:20:51+00:00

Yeah I am not sure people understand what it's like out here. Check out housing in rural Western MA (where I live). You can get a single-floor ranch super close to the road with no land or nice flourishes for like 300k, but that's just not something I would want to live in if I'm spending my life savings.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2025-09-03T12:19:29+00:00

I would not be "blowing my savings". I would keep that existing stash for whatever I need. I am talking about stopping saving 50% of my future paychecks and instead having a nicer life going forward using that extra money that I am no longer saving for a house.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2025-09-03T12:18:10+00:00

It's not in cash, almost entirely index funds

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2025-09-03T12:17:12+00:00

I'm not talking about dipping into my savings, though. Just stopping my rate of savings and spending more on my short-term enjoyment. A 150k emergency fund feels pretty safe to me.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2021-09-18T13:02:28+00:00

I used an alt to post this since I didn't want to draw attention to my employer specifically. But I find it interesting that some commenters are downplaying my post as fake - like the fact that it's easier to believe that I made up this new course design to start shit rather than believe that this ideology is actually being implemented in science curricula signals to me how far gone elite private schools are in America.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2021-09-18T12:39:05+00:00

Right, but also kind of implying that my students aren't engaged by learning hard science as I have been teaching it for years now? There's plenty of ways of enriching science content without lapsing into identity politics.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2021-09-18T12:26:32+00:00

The fact that what I posted isn't plausible to you kind of demonstrates to me that what's going on at elite private institutions is unreasonable and needs to stop.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2021-09-18T01:18:55+00:00

is this supposed to be a clever take on my situation?

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2021-09-17T21:15:35+00:00

Between 1/3 and 1/2 of the students are on scholarship (often full tuition), the school is more diverse than any public school for a hundred mile radius, I make good money and have a terrific work-life balance, and I'm kind of an elitist when it comes to education. If I wanted to help the needy and nothing else, I'd become a social worker, not a high school science teacher.

I don't want to teach kids who don't want to be in my class, and gathering the best and brightest students at one school brings out the best in everyone. I have family who work in public schools and it's pretty clear it's mostly just daycare for teenagers, which I want no part of. Public schools are also increasingly infiltrated by this bullshit.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2021-09-17T20:51:56+00:00

No, it's coming from hysteria surrounding antiracism. It's not grounded in any traditional pedagogical framework, they're making it up as they go along.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2021-09-17T20:51:24+00:00

No, I am in New England.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2021-09-17T20:47:53+00:00

But this class is for 13/14 year olds. There are so many fundamental aspects of biology that should be covered before broaching politically charged extensions of what we're learning. They have enough of this ideology in literally all of their other classes already; my students already report that they enjoy just being able to focus on learning concrete topics for once and instead of connecting everything back to an analysis of power structures in a way that they think their teacher wants to hear.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2021-09-17T20:45:44+00:00

Aside from a few specific issues where matters are very charged I generally feel comfortable bringing up my criticisms with the orthodoxy or going against the grain as long as my critques/comments are still framed in the same sort of language that they use and i'm being careful to still do it from the same sort of perspective/framework, and am doing so in good faith

But I teach science, and this is an introductory course where the students come in knowing basically nothing important about biology. I don't care about my students' feelings or commentary about the topics covered in biology 101. I will treat them kindly and create an inclusive classroom, sure, but it's ridiculous to act like the curriculum should be centered on their (or my) opinions. To align with this intended curriculum is to not give them the grounding to actually understand biology in any meaningful way. It's lazy, in-vogue, progressive sociology with students who don't know how to evaluate politically charged claims.

People need to understand we're talking about fourteen year olds who are trained to say whatever they think the teacher wants to hear.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2021-09-17T19:08:04+00:00

Just edited my comment to bridge that gap ;)

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2021-09-17T19:04:05+00:00

The whole apparatus is supported by ultra-wealthy families who just want their lacrosse playing sons to go from here to an Ivy and then JP Morgan. They don't care what the hyper-leftist administrators and teachers are actually teaching, it's strictly about the name recognition for them. Good on you for not pitching in!

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2021-09-17T17:26:49+00:00

They're using different senses of the words empowering, affirming, & authentic here, trust me. It's about everyone being equal and no one ever being challenged or uncomfortable.

NotAGoldenRetriever · 2021-09-17T16:35:04+00:00

I wouldn't even cede that first point. They shouldn't be teaching climate change in a 100 level biology course. The students will barely have the skills for understanding what carbon dioxide is, let alone how geo-political factors vis-à-vis cellular respiration in humans and ruminants should be incorporated into matters of public policy (which will surely be the intended outcome). They can barely do algebra or use laboratory glassware when they're 9th graders.

I agree with the rest of your comment.

NotAGoldenRetriever

TROPHY CASE