Thanks for your insight. I'll be moving in less than 5
weeks and have recently purchased a home in SW Topeka. My
daughters will be attending Auburn-Washburn schools and
I'm still attempting to obtain a teaching position. I'm
getting a little nervous!

On 3/02/09, newbyartteacher wrote:
> As a teacher who grew up in Topeka through high school,
> went to a Kansas
> College, and now teach in Kansas City, MO, I really
> don't understand the hatred for Topeka.
>
> In college, friends from "nicer" areas or
> small town Kansas always thought of Topeka as violent
> or dirty, never wanting to stop for gas. I lived in
> South Topeka, specifically more South West and attended
> Topeka West HS.
>
> My sister teaches in 501 and loves it. There are dirty
> more dangerous areas because it is a "city"
> not a small town. I think it's blown way out of
> proportion, and the biggest problem isn't violence or
> dirt, but boredom. Topeka just isn't a "fun"
> city for us 20-somethings. I have friends there I
> visit, and we have fun, but for the most part Topeka is
> a gray city with not that much going on, but that is
> from my perspective. I still love it, and if I was to
> raise a family, I'd probably move back to Topeka.
>
> Also, the Auburn-Washburn district is very good, it's
> very white (I'm white and had many friends from church
> go there) and rich, so it will come with all the sort
> of elitist attitudes that people with already sunny
> dispositions tend to have. It really is a good school,
> but because most students come from middle class homes,
> parent involvement can actually be TOO much, as well as
> the need to display yourself "properly" in
> public or risk becoming the new gossip sensation for
> wearing sweat pants to the supermarket. At least this
> is what my friends who have taught there say. I wish
> you luck, and hope it's great!

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