A St. Louis resident since 1991, Inda Schaenen is a writer, journalist, professor, and certified English language arts teacher in the Normandy School District. She is the author of Speaking of Fourth Grade: What Listening to Kids Tells Us About School in America (The New Press), four young adult novels, and a parenting guide, The 7 O’Clock Bedtime. Her columns and essays have appeared in Salon, the St. Louis Beacon, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and the anthology Mommy Wars.