To be honest, Phil Collins doesn’t actually teach at my school.

I’m sure his day-to-day life is much more dignified and leisurely. He probably gets up at…nevermind. I’m just going to get angry.

I bring up Phil Collins because the CD player in my car is broken. Just as it has been for maybe 5 years. I don’t drive much, so it’s not a big deal.

(Sidebar: Some of you youngsters probably don’t know what a CD player is, or haven’t actually owned one. Well, the one in my car is broken. CDs are about the diameter of a softball, but they are flat and very shiny on one side. That’s where the good stuff is.

A younger teacher came into my room last year and we were talking. I was playing a CD that probably came out when she was 4. She turned and looked at the source of the music and in the sweetest voice said, “Awww…you have a boom box.” And she looked sort of sad. I could go in for a hip replacement or cataract surgery and somehow I would feel younger than after this comment.)

So…Phil Collins does not work at my school. But he may have been a TFA at my school in another life. I was talking to a few of the newer people at my school last week and they are feeling defeated. They know they can’t win. They are demoralized and have accepted that they will never bevalued here. Any time you do what the (wo)man wants, there will be something else. Many of them have given up. They are applying for other jobs. They don’t care anymore.

So with my CD player broken I sometimes tune in to one of the classic rock stations. And here comes Phil Collins on Friday afternoon on my way home last week. It’s like an anthem of defiance and liberation to my principal. It is still miles away from Genesis and something like Abacab or Three Sides Live. But at that moment, Phil Collins was singing to me. Only me.:

Well you can tell everyone I’m a down disgrace
Drag my name all over the place -
I don’t care anymore

I never did believe you much anyway
So get out of my way – let me by
I got better things to do with my time
I don’t care anymore.

And now, The Superbowl

Mr. Teachbad had the great honor last night of being invited to a Superbowl party, as Mr. Teachbad, by people I didn’t actually know in real life. That’s new.

I want to thank the hostess and host for inviting me. It was really great. They made Turducken. It’s a chicken, wrapped in a duck, stuffed in a turkey. And it is Good. Very Good. Met a lot of good people. And the man of the house allowed me to drink beer from his prize collection of AC/DC glasses. Like I said, it was all Very Good. Thank you.

Mr. Teachbad