'You're a teacher and a mom!'

By Kate Stringer, Staff Writer stringer14@up.edu

The clock flashes 8 p.m. and college students lay sprawled across their beds, reading and annotating texts for class tomorrow.

Meanwhile, across dark city streets lit up by flashing lights of traffic, English professors Molly Hiro and Lars Larson also sit reading. But their annotations aren't for class tomorrow, and their audience is two girls, ages nine and six, whose only homework at the moment is falling asleep to the sound of Harry Potter's adventures told through the voices of their parents.

After the school day is done, many UP professors go home to their second teaching job with students significantly younger than their college pupils - their children. However, most professors who are parents don't leave the world of academia on their Buckley Center desk as they walk out of the office. Instead, their careers influence how they interact with and raise their kids.

Raising Readers

Larson and Hiro's daughters, Willa and Tess Larson, are growing up in a household where reading is valued.

"Our kids are steeped in the books on the shelves that surround them so they know that the represented world is as important to their parents as the experienced world," Larson said. "We don't force that on them, but every day they see physical manifestations that they're saturated in a world that says, 'Reading is valuable, it's not a waste of time.'"

As the daughters of two English professors, Willa and Tess go to the library at least once, sometimes twice a week for books. Larson and Hiro also read to them for a half hour every night before bed.

The influence of academic parents extends beyond the bookshelves and into the family dynamics. Pushing students to go deeper in their questioning of a text doesn't stop at the classroom for Larson and Hiro. Larson notices that he unconsciously encourages his daughters to think deeper similar to the way he encourages his students.

"The academic mode is to always question things with 'how' and 'why,' so not just 'What was your day like?' but 'How did it happen that way?' and 'Why do you think it went that way?'" Larson said. "We're having kids look at different facets. It's a lot of unconscious things rather than a conscious pedagogical decision that 'This is how we're going to raise a kid.'"

Larson points out that with more time restraints at home, achieving as much as academics without children is challenging.

"We look at those academics without kids with envy from the books they can publish," Larson said. "You have to think of your kids as works of scholarship in some ways - the time you devote to them could be thought as similar to the time you devote to raising a book. They're both valuable, but you can't help but on some days valuing the other person's choice."

Larson finds the academic discourse doesn't have to stop when he leaves campus.

"The best part of my day is coming home and hearing about what they've learned over the dinner table," Larson said. "We value that discourse."

The Philosophical Life

For students that ever grow tired with the routine of repetitive schedules and all too familiar buildings, take a walk through campus with philosophy professor Jessica Logue's three-year-old daughter, Kiran.

"She loves the classrooms, and not just the spinning chairs but the huge screens," Logue said. "The auditorium in Buckley Center she thought was the most impressive thing she's ever seen."

While screen projectors and remodeled libraries are foreign concepts to the mind of a three-year-old, Kiran is not unfamiliar with the importance of philosophy.

"My daughter already understands who Descartes is and some of the basics of philosophy, like she understands the law of non-contradiction," Logue said. "I spend my time teaching people at a much higher level, but I feel I have this tremendous responsibility that I have to teach her too."

Kiran's sense of fashion is also influenced by philosophy. She is the proud owner of a purple shirt that reads "Cogito ergo sum. I think therefore I am."

"When you ask her who said 'I think therefore I am?' she says 'The Descartes man,'" Logue said.

Logue appreciates how her job allows her to spend time with Kiran. By teaching every other day, she gets to be with Kiran on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Additionally, the short academic year lets Logue be with Kiran during the summers.

Even when Logue has to bring schoolwork home, Kiran graciously offers to assist in her mother's homework.

"I take quite of bit of [grading] home," Logue said. "[Kiran] will get out a pad of paper and say 'I'm going to grade too,' or 'Can I help?'"

Professor and Mother - Finding Identity

For Coco, age five, the realization that her mom had a second job as a professor came a few weeks ago when she was helping psychology professor and mother Deana Julka pass out exams to her class.

"[Coco] stood up there and was like, 'You're the teacher...these are your big students...You're a teacher and a mom!' It was this really great moment, this realization that 'Oh, wow, you're in charge here.'" Julka said. "Hopefully it gives [my kids] the idea that you can do several things and have a well-rounded life, and that there's importance to education - you can achieve your goals."

Julka hopes her three children, Coco, Hayden, age seven, and Madison, age ten, can understand the possibility of following one's passion while still having a family.

But playing two roles is no easy task. While Julka feels she does a good job of building her schedule around her children's, she points out that some things get compromised - Julka estimates she gets a maximum of five hours of sleep per night.

With a society that still sees women as the motherly caretakers of a family, Julka points out that balancing her job as mother and professor is even more difficult.

"Female students will come to me and say, 'You can do it all,' and I don't think that's true," Julka said. "The role often falls on women [to take care of the kids]. I think it's a balancing act and there are concessions and you have to prioritize. If you choose one path it means other options are eliminated."

Even receiving tenure as a woman is a challenge. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, "women with children were 38 percent less likely than men with children to receive tenure."

While holding two high demanding jobs requires Julka to make concessions, she finds that both her passions are met by her lifestyle.

"Having a professional job I find a lot of value in makes me a better mom," Julka said. "Having something I'm invested in and dedicated to refreshes me. They both infuse each other."