If you are or have ever been a teacher, what is your birth order in your family?

1. 88

   Billie Kelpinposted 10 years ago

   If you are or have ever been a teacher, what is your birth order in your family?
   
   Sounds crazy that I'm asking, I know, but I'm wondering if most teachers who feel successful in their jobs are from a family with siblings.  I have a feeling that only children, for example, prefer to work one-on-one.  It's just a curiosity for me as an only child and as former teacher who feels much more successful working one-on-one, not for the usual reasons, but just because I am not comfortable with controlling behavior.   
   
   

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   Andrew Fratzkeposted 10 years ago

   Number 8 in a family of 9, or second to youngest. I would definitely say that you are correct in your correlation, when you have siblings you have to learn to cope without direction from an authoritative figure. Therefore you acquire the ability to read social cues and the figurative temperature of a room.

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      Billie Kelpinposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Andrew,  Ah, ha!  Interesting.  And I think a person with siblings is much more comfortable with "criticism" because brothers and sisters tease and can be negative, and knows how to handle it. Don't know exactly how to put that.  Thanks, Andrew!

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   LuisEGonzalezposted 10 years ago

   I am the eldest of two siblings. Don't know if it would made a difference if I were to have been the youngest.

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      Billie Kelpinposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Interesting...still no only children as yet, but Dreikers (way back when) theorized that if there is more than 7 years of space in between you and the next, you've been raised as an only child. I happened to marry the oldest of 6 (TWICE!)

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   StephanieBCrosbyposted 10 years ago

   I only have one sibling. And I am the youngest. However, she was a teacher assistant at one point and also worked at a day care. I was previously a high school teacher and then switched to higher education. I continue to instruct college courses and started my own educational consulting business. But I guess teaching just run in the family, as my mom used to be a child care teacher at one point.

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   1. 88

      Billie Kelpinposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Stephanie, I do think only one other sibling helps as well. Sounds like a wonderful family.  I hope you have your educational consulting business in your hubs b/c I have free online learning games that I created on my website.  Feel free to email me

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   Peggasuseposted 10 years ago

   I am an only child.  I don't know if home schooling your own children constitutes being a teacher, but if it does, then I was a teacher and still am.

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      Billie Kelpinposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Peggaduse,  Now see, I could handle homeschooling.  It's that whole crowd control thing I don't have "goin' on".  I remember student teaching and taking the 25 kids down to the gym when they didn't have specialists. 25 kids in the gym terrified me!

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      Peggasuseposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I agree Billie.  It was hard enough for me to handle my own child.  But 25 of them?  I don't think I could do it without pulling my hair out.  lol.

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   billybucposted 10 years ago

   What an interesting question.  I'm basically an only child; my sister was gone and marries by the time I was five and I never really minded the classroom forum...I just loved teaching, whether it was to thirty or one.

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   1. 88

      Billie Kelpinposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      So, my theory is off!  Were you at the high school, college,  or elementary level"  And you're right, you are essentially an only child.  However, I'm thinking that if you're sister had children, you're experience with them might have helped (?)

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      billybucposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Interesting, Billie!  My sister had five kids and I babysat them a great deal growing up. I taught middle school and high school for eighteen years.

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      Billie Kelpinposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Billy from Billie, soooo maybe it IS that interaction in "a teaching role" early on that helps. My mother never let me babysit because she worried about "kidnappers!".  I had one babysitting experience - at 16 with kids who were asleep!

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   cebutouristspotposted 10 years ago

   Youngest in a family of 3 kids. I tried teaching but found out real quick that even though I am a fast learner I have a hard time/nor have the patience on teaching.
   
   Even now I have my own kids I still find it hard to relate to them

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8. 83

   gmwilliamsposted 10 years ago

   
   
   Never have been a teacher but this question is excellent.  I like your questions, Billie.  It is GOOD to have questions which makes people think.  I also like out of the box questions and questions that show some deep analysis and imagination.  I did a hub regarding employees/employers and their respective birth orders and how their particular birth orders influences their working and/or managerial behavior.  CHECK IT OUT! 
   
   However, when I was younger, I wanted to be a teacher.  I wanted to be a teacher at the high school level because such students were near adults and the subject matter would be more complex than at the elementary school level.  As I got older, I entertained thoughts of being a college professor because I would rather teach adults than children. 
   
   Even as a child, I had NO patience with childish follies. I believed in being exact and that people should get things THE FIRST time.  If I have to repeat something, I would get totally exasperated, especially if the subject matter was easy.   I decided against teaching because of the low pay. 
   
   However, I was a supervisor at work; I was very exacting and perfectionistic.  If someone made a mistake, I found it near to inexcusable because the job was not a complex one.   I was a taskmaster, one came to work to work, not socialize.   I also believe in the strict separation between supervisor-employee. If an employee become too familiar with me, I immediately squashed that.
   
   I am an only child, one can say that only children are first borns magnified.  Please read my hub on the subject for further information on birth order relationships in the work place.   As a superior, one can say that I leaned towards the authoritarian side.

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