Mass Production of Individuals
Every student is a precious gift who deserves an educational experience that is at once self-paced and expertly guided; providing a constant but ever-changing and perfect combination of challenge, relevance, support and blah-bitty blah blah, etc. You know…
And we all wish we could do that for our students. Or, if we don’t wish we could, we used to imagine that we might be able to or want to. Or, lacking that, we reasonably assumed that our students might have endeavored to do more work on their own. But whatever the case, each student is a uniquely individual…individual…precious, wonderful gift.
Everybody will sign onto the idea of the precious gift. That’s easy. Less pleasing to the ear and the heart, but no less true, is that each student is nameless and interchangeable. The whole of public education is bureaucratic-services mass production. There are tens of millions of units to process every year; each then moves to the next production station. In the end we turn out brand new high school graduates and tally them. If we are going to do that, and even do a poor job of it, the precious gift model of production cannot be our practice.
We need to move product.
It doesn’t demean or trivialize students or teachers to say this. It’s simply a fact; a transparent, undeniable fact. If we could admit it and address it smartly, we could possibly make this whole operation much more efficient, productive and pleasant.
Any time there is some sort of repeated task to perform it’s worth taking it apart and thinking about how it could be done better. I only had to ship one box of six Teachbad mugs across the country and have all six handles break before I began to think more carefully about how to pack and ship them. It would be stupid to have 70 million kids in the system and not think to ourselves Hey, is there some part of this that can be streamlined and routinized so we don’t have to reinvent it and think about it brand new 70 million times every year?
This is actually the key insight of much of the education reform movement. Schools need teachers to do certain things and behave in certain ways, both administratively and instructionally, to have our best shot at producing massive amounts of well-educated people.
But the movement and its ideas have gone too far and become hopelessly complex and disorganized. Even if teachers still wanted to try to follow along and implement all of the strategies that work, they could not. Every state, district, principal and department chair examines the enormous menu of strategies that work and chooses a handful. They may contradict one another, they may not be well-understood or have ever been practiced by anybody in the school, and they may take an enormous amount of time. But they work. So we’re doin’ ‘em.
If they don’t work, we’ll pick new ones and fire some people. Etch-a-Sketch style.
Aside from being too great in number, the problem with mass implementation of strategies that work is that it bumps into the teacher’s instinct and desire to maintain a reasonable connection with the precious gift model of production. That’s why teachers are there in the first place. We want to give students more attention and work more closely with them as individuals. And if allowed to do this, if allowed to make mistakes while guided by people who have an interest in our genuine professional development, we will get better and better at teaching. Real teaching; not only improving our ability to feign compliance. Feigning compliance is obviously useful no matter what your line of work, but it has necessarily and sadly become something teachers spend way too much time on.
Your strategies that work might have worked for you, or you might have read about them in a journal, or you might have heard about them at a conference. But why does that automatically mean that I have to do it in my classroom? Along with your 14 other new ideas?
There are a lot of things teachers do to make public education run like the machine it is. But you have to leave us some professional space to do the actual teaching; the reason we came here in the first place. If you don’t, we’ll leave. We won’t go on strike. You’ll hardly notice it at first. But it’s already happening. Slowly but surely the people you really need to be in the classroom are leaving. They will eventually be replaced entirely by 4 million 26-year-old technocrats. Good luck with that.
This is all headed in the wrong direction.
Mr. Teachbad
“If you don’t, we’ll leave. . . it’s already happening. Slowly but surely the people you really need to be in the classroom are leaving.”
Yes. Yes, yes, yes yes yes yes.
In addition to those of us who are leaving, there are even more telling every college-age person they know “Run! Run away! don’t even think about teaching.”
Yup. I said I wanted to go into teaching and just got told to not do it because teaching is getting more and more thankless as a profession.
If anyone thinks that teacher quality is a quantifiable skill, well it just ‘ain’t true.” This is at the heart of the education reform issue. Teachers may have good days/years and bad. Many factors are involved. However, now we have game on. If the boss doesn’t like you, then they check rubric boxes that explain why in their subjective opinion you are a bad teacher. The problem isn’t that teachers shouldn’t be evaluated. The problem is that we are being evaluated by liars. If a teacher is to be evaluated, then it’s time to have objective people do the evaluation. The teacher needs the opportunity to explain any and all special circumstances that need to be factured in before even an independent third party evaluatior can make a determination. It’s time to look at education reform from the top down. It’s the districts , the principals and their management that is the real problem . If firing ineffective teachers addressed the dilemma, then it would be problem solved my now. When a company wants to make changes, they change the top and not the bottom. Education is messed up because we refuse to see that it’s the top of the burearcracy that needs to be fixed. How about a rubric that asked questions like – do the strategies work – do teachers have tasks that are doable in the time allotted- etc.
The whole system is based on a lie. Can we really teach 6 years of material who come in to high school four years behind (um, that would be 8 years of material, wouldn’t it? In 4 years. So, twice the pace for students who have already shown they only go at half the pace of normal)? Yet there they go,graduating. On to community college, where adjunct faculty are told they must pass them or be fired.
Our high school failures go to on-line classes, whose teachers only get paid for students who get at least a C – their GPA is sure up.
So everybody lies. They do in business, too. But honestly (really, not lying)? I was in the medical industry. At least in school, even if everybody lies, nobody dies.
“Schools need teachers to do certain things and behave in certain ways [...] to have our best shot at producing massive amounts of well-educated people.”
In addition, the massive amounts of people receiving the education must do certain things (learn stuff) and behave in certain ways (act like they care about learning stuff) so that the actions and behaviors of the teachers have more than a snowball’s chance in hell of being effective.
When there is an absence of interest from those engaged in learning, no learning occurs.
I have come to accept that I probably have no more than a mitigating effect on the educational development of most of my students. The smart ones were smart before they sat down in one of the seats at one of the quads in my classroom. (Wait, are we using quads this year, or trios? What did my last Kagan instructor tell me to do? Fuck!) I can only make sure that they get practice using their smartness, to keep it sharp, so that one day they can go out into the world and utilize it for professional and personal gain. Likewise, the dumb ones were dumb before they entered my classroom. By engaging in my standards-driven, brain-based, kinesthetically invigorating and culturally relevant lessons, the dumb ones stay dumb -because they’re dumb- but they do not devolve into Homo erectus.
One day the masses will be well-educated, but only when mnemonic micro-processor implants become a reality. So until the computer-brain revolution comes, society will have its smart people and its dumb people, regardless of what teachers do, or will not do, in their classrooms.
The education system is a joke, and we teachers are the jesters telling it…………
“The education system is a joke, and we teachers are the jesters telling it”
Has a Shakespearean ring to it. Thanks. I’ll quote it often.
The education system is a joke, and we teachers are the jesters telling it…………
If only it were true. The system is a cruel prank, and we teachers are the victims.
I don’t think our unions help us much anymore. They are another arm of the employer most of the time anyway. Some teachers will keep their jobs because they are liked by the bosses. Teacher quality appears to be irrelevant in the way the principals truly employ the rubrics of the rating systems.
So, if charters can get rid of trouble makers and give some kids an education because they don’t have to put up with the outrageous behaviors that public school teachers are forced to pretend aren’t
Destroying instruction in the classroom , then hey, what the hell?
If I was out of this business, I would want my kid to go to a school where they can learn especially if I was poor. I wouldn’t want to deal with how crappy the teachers lot has become due to lack of support and obstacles to teaching effectively .
It’s a shame because in the long run , I believe in public schools. Not now though, it has become as dysfunctional as every other government run system.
I have to agree about the unions. Last week we had conferences, and the Keystone Cops who work for our little town hit the water main across the street (again), and we were stuck in the building at conferences for SIX HOURS without water. Any peeps from the union? Nope.
Okay, looking at that and comparing it to the comment about Hurricane Sandy below, I retract my whiny comment.
Hey everybody: Buy the magnets from Mr. Teachbad. I did and I love them . I was surprised at the top quality of this product. It’s not just some gag item. It is intelligent and top shelf. It has words and word endings and beginnings to create a plethora of sentences and educational terminology orientated. It’s a work of art. I would love to know how MTB has this item massed produced.
My yellow mugs and balls are way better than I expected from the pics on this site. The mug has two sides so you can actually use it and people will know its in pure fun and not something you have to hide to use. The balls are full size and you can play catch or toss to a pet.
Support your local Teachbad!
Thanks! And, since you mention it, there will be two BRAND NEW Teachbad mugs available in the next week or two and I’ll be doing new pics of everything as well. Indeed…support your local Teachbad. Cuz Teachbad gotta eat.
I am not sure what “dumb” means, but I was dumb-founded when one of my students, who seemed a bit slow, showed me how to pop a car lock, remove the inspection sticker in one piece, leave the car without a scratch and sell the sticker. Creativity comes along when one is not paying attention. Curiousity is a curious thing. I believe in students who are curious and can figure out things that I never could!Matter of fact,a President who is curious is a good thing!
What was the quote by Einstein….Imagination is more important than knowledge – or something like that.
Well, I sure hope you don’t park your car in the lot where your students can find it.
What was the quote by Einstein.…Imagination is more important than knowledge — or something like that.
This. This is what is wrong with the average American teacher (original commenter included). You merely pretend to have actual knowledge. If you don’t really know, you don’t bother to take the six seconds necessary to look it up, you just blow it off with a “something like that”. (Yes, I timed myself looking up that quote.) As a very wise band director once told me, “If you don’t know it, you can’t teach it.”
And speaking of quotes and Einstein and the little morality tale of your budding car thief, try this one on for size, “…the world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it.”
What happened to not feeding the….oh, nevermind.
Yeah, I know, I know. Just this once. Won’t happen again.
“Dumb” means a lot of things. Here’s one of them: a teacher is impressed by her student’s ability to break into a car and commit an act of fraud, a skill that will probably land the student in jail one day, unless he decides to become a locksmith, which he probably won’t. That’s dumb. I mean… for fuck’s sake… you’re impressed by that? Really?
I hate that quote from Einstein. Why do people who believe that having knowledge is unimportant always quote a guy who had a great wealth of knowledge? Also, look at the quote again: he stated that “Imagination is more important than knowledge” not “Imagination is the only thing that is important, and knowledge is unnecessary.” Without knowledge, there is nothing for the imagination to build imaginative things upon.
That and the full quote is “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” Essentially he’s saying that imagination leads to greater knowledge and understanding. He did not say “there is no need for knowledge.”
And another thing… “Dumb” kids do not usually have much of an imagination anyway, as they let the Internet and video games take the place of it…
Ha! And lots of snickering as I write this comment. That was a fantastic smack-down to Ms. Claire. well thought out, written and amusingly expressed. Not sure how dumb went out of style along with cheating, stealing and lying, common behaviors of both dumb and smart students. Jesus. I escaped in 2005 and only have occasional flashbacks now.
I’m going to defend Ms. Claire. I don’t think the groups is being fair about this comment. And I don’t like calling kids stupid because it’s imprecise and isn’t even the biggest problem. Lazy, unfocused, unable or unwilling to work is the problem. I’ll take a roomful stupid and teach the shit out of them if they’ll do some work. Lazy is much worse.
I think all Claire is saying is that if a kid does bad in school, it might not be because he’s dumb. The question then becomes how far over does a teacher have to bend in order to make school something of interest to which this possibly smart kid might apply him or herself. Do all the math questions have to be about how much basketball shoes cost? If we read about Malcolm X or Cesar Chavez, it’s still going to be “reading” and a lot of kids won’t be having it.
Good lord, if you must, but it seems to me from her comments on your October 22 post she’s up for defending herself, bizarre as they were. Hope that “bully guilt” isn’t making you go all soft on us now;-} Every reality show has a character who polarizes the group.
Upon reflection, perhaps I inserted myself where I was neither invited nor belonged. And perhaps there is more to it than meets the eye.
As I’ve already stated: Dumb means a lot of things. Dumb manifests itself in a great variety of ways. Lazy is dumb. Unfocused is dumb. Unable or unwilling to work is dumb. If a student is willing to work, and spends their time investing in their education, I do not call them “dumb” or “stupid.” However, if a student spends their time learning how to commit a criminal act, instead of investing in their education, I call that dumb. And if a teacher tries to equate learning how to commit a criminal act to something that Einstein said about imagination, I call that really dumb.
I agree with you on the “how far over does a teacher have to bend” part, but I do not think that’s what Judith Claire meant by her comment. I also think that she could defend herself. But of course this is your blog so whatever…
Again J Claire has students so comfortable that they commit criminal acts and trust her to be in on it with them. Well, guess this shows us her teaching style and edu philosophy . She must be the “effective” teacher model the world craves. Honor , integrity ethics — nope – just teachers who are buddies
I’d be pretty impressed too. We had a kid who got into the computer system and changed all the grades for $10 each (free to his friends). Oh, he’s still in school, there was no consequence to either him or the IT people. They did make some technology security changes.
It’s the business model. “Backwards engineering.” Big bucks. It’s what the country says it wants.
Wow times have changed! One of my friends did that 15 years ago, and they kicked him out of school. He had to sneak into graduation in elaborate stage makeup.
Mr. Teachbad, as usual, is quite perceptive. We all love the fuzzy, romantic ideal of individual education, but it is completely impossible in the world of compulsory schooling. Individualized education is massively expensive, as witnessed by the historical fact that only the richest families could afford to educate their children. (In the modern sense of the word “educate”, I’m not talking about learning the family business through apprenticeship or going to work.)
Any time there is some sort of repeated task to perform it’s worth taking it apart and thinking about how it could be done better.
Aye, there’s the rub. We are just starting to do this, but our tools are incredibly crude. (Multiple choice test scores in two subjects, plus value-added in only two subjects.) It’s like medieval medicine. Painful, messy, incredibly dangerous and quite often fatal. Start researching about how human’s learn, real cognitive neuroscience not fluffy ed school drivel, and you realize how much we do not know. (If you are curious, Daniel Willingham is a great beginning.) Add interaction of 20+ students and a teacher in a classroom, you will understand that we are NOWHERE. Sure there are successful teachers, just like there were medieval doctors. But no one understands why they succeed while their colleagues fail, and anyone who tells you differently is selling snake oil.
A couple of years ago, Robert Pondiscio (of Core Knowledge fame) and others speculated what it would be like if sabermetrics could be applied to teaching practice. It is a phenomenal idea. We could stop with the snake oil and the voodoo and the superstition and the bromides. But it will require a vast amount of observational data, that I doubt teachers would be willing to provide in sufficient numbers, as well as agreement on what is essential to be measured.
As potentially revolutionary as educational sabermetrics could be, I don’t hold out any hope for it. When intelligent discussion of modest proposals like curriculum (not standards) and direct instruction are taboo, it is useless to even dream about the big classroom reform.
I teach a subject in which there are only Cirriculum guidelines. Since I pretty much decide what I want to teach I found out I had a problem. At year end I would find that the boss wasn’t necessarily satisfied with the learning. Yet, how could this be measured when no one expressed a standard? This year I requested in writing a statement of what specific knowledges was to be imparted in Sept. I was met with crickets!! But at least I put it in writing. I am so sick of being told that I didn’t teach enough when no one wants to tell me what the definition of enough is? I think that this goes to the heart of MTB ‘s post. Really, while some basic knowledge is being tested, no one is really stating what defines the educators goals in a way that is realistic enough to be useful.
I’m still getting the email from our union. Check out this bs message from Michael Mulgrew:
“Dear colleagues,
Thank you all for what you have done throughout this crisis.
As we always do, UFT members have once again risen to the occasion in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Our members time and again stand up to help our communities, and these last days have been no exception. Thousands of you have served admirably in evacuation centers across the city, providing comfort and solace to your fellow New Yorkers. Our members in the hospitals and visiting nurse services have been on the frontlines both during and in the aftermath of the storm. You are all a credit to your colleagues, your professions and your union.
As caregivers in schools, hospitals and child care programs, we will be at the forefront as our communities begin down the long road to recovery. As we do this important work, we must not only care for our students but also for each other. We have all been impacted by the storm. Many of us have lost homes; some of us have lost family or friends. At some schools, you will inevitably learn that you have lost colleagues.
But even as we confront these personal hardships, I know that each and every one of us will be there to see that our students and our school communities begin the difficult task of returning to normalcy. It will not be easy. In some places, like Coney Island, Breezy Point, the Rockaways and Staten Island, entire communities have been devastated. Both students and colleagues have in many cases lost homes, and it falls on us to provide what support — both in and out of the classroom — we can.
We got into this profession to help others and that is what we will do. Many of us have been impacted in our own lives by the storm, but we have always been there for our students and their families and in this difficult time, when we are most needed by them, I know that we will not only meet, but exceed what is expected of us. As we deal with our own hardships, we know that the students, parents and communities we serve need us, and we will do whatever it takes to see that their needs — emotional as well as educational — are met.
The return to school on Friday was chaotic, and it will only be more so as students resume classes tomorrow. Many of you endured hours-long journeys to get to school. Others arrived at your school buildings to find that there was no electricity or heat. In Far Rockaway, our members were confronted with a heartbreaking sight as children, many of whose families have lost everything, came to knock on their school doors, asking for food. In all of these and myriad other trying situations you did a phenomenal job.
Now, as we begin to move forward, we must continue to stay focused on what matters most: Seeing that our students are safe and that their needs are met. Many of us will inevitably have students who have experienced some form of loss, and they and our youngest students will particularly need our help and support as they try to make sense of what has happened. Many of our colleagues have also suffered tremendous losses and will need our support, too.
We will continue to work with the Department of Education to meet these and the other challenges with which we will be confronted tomorrow and beyond as the city and our communities continue the long process of recovery. The storm will have a lasting impact not only on those who suffered losses, but also on the tens of thousands of our students, as well as thousands of our members in the schools, who will have to be relocated to other school buildings for the year.
As we confront these challenges, it is a time for all of us to come together; recovery is our collective responsibility as New Yorkers. But make no doubt about it: Our role as caregivers is especially important. As the frontline staff in schools, hospitals and child care programs, we are relied upon by parents and families to guide their children and other loved ones through these difficult times. There will be many twists and turns, but I know that we will all be there for each other as well as the communities which we proudly serve — because that is what we always do.
I hope that you and your loved ones are safe. Remember that we need to care for each other, too. The union is reaching out and providing support to those members who may have lost loved ones and to the families of our members who lost their lives in the storm. We have counselors available to provide solace and guidance; we are also working to connect members in need with FEMA and are using the UFT Disaster Relief Fund to provide whatever support we can as we move forward and recover together.
The families of UFT members who lost their lives or were severely injured in the storm, UFT members who lost a family member, and UFT members whose homes were destroyed or severely damaged should complete the union’s Urgent Assistance Form at http://www.uft.org/sandy-help to help us determine how we can provide useful and meaningful assistance as soon as possible.
Thank you again for your tremendous response on Friday; all of New York City is in awe of you, and I am so proud of each and every one of you and humbled to be your representative and part of our union.”
Be safe and thank you,
Michael Mulgrew
Pleasssssse!! What a bunch of emotional-stroking babbling. You know what I took away from all that yapping: TEACHERS NEED TO DO MORE. MORE, MORE, MORE.
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The phrase “mass production” brought me back to Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 in which Beatty, the fire chief , says the following about the effect of “mass” on our culture, education, identity. It is a chilling text that is now more prophetic than it is science fiction.
“Then — motion pictures in the early twentieth century. Radio. Television. Things began to have mass. And because they had mass, they became simpler….Once, books appealed to a few people, here, there, everywhere. They could afford to be different. The world was roomy. But then the world got full of eyes and elbows and mouths. Double, triple, quadruple population. Films and radios, magazines, books levelled down to a sort of paste pudding norm, do you follow me?
“School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling gradually neglected, finally almost completely ignored. Life is immediate, the job counts, pleasure lies all about after work. Why learn anything save pressing buttons, pulling switches, fitting nuts and bolts?
“We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone made equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves against.”
Simplicity, mediocrity, over-crowding, lax discipline, immediate gratification, and faux equality…..a searingly accurate description of the current direction of education.
Yes, Mr. Bradbury, you understood us too well.
Ray Bradbury, like Orwell and Huxley, was a prophet. As the Common Core calls for an emphasis on STEM and on reading nonfiction, we must remember how many of our writers and artists have been prophets.
We must remember that science, technology, and math ask whether we CAN do a thing; literature, art, and philosophy as whether we SHOULD. And we must not give up literature, art, and philosophy without a fight.
Well put. I joke with a history colleague of mine that history examines the facts of human behavior while literature explores the truth of human nature.
How could I omit this one?
“With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word ‘intellectual,’ of course, became the swear word it deserved to be. ”
Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
Check out these old school videos (old school mean schools of the past lol). Notice the change in the 2009 photos. You can see how the walls are plastered with papers. The classrooms have become one big “show”. This is why beginning of the year classroom set-up has become a task all it’s own…
“But you have to leave us some professional space to do the actual teaching; the reason we came here in the first place. If you don’t, we’ll leave. We won’t go on strike. You’ll hardly notice it at first. But it’s already happening. Slowly but surely the people you really need to be in the classroom are leaving.”
It’s true. There is a reason most teachers quit in the first 5 years. Mainly, I figure, because it takes them about that long to figure things out financially with getting new education/career to pay the bills.
I know I won’t be doing this in 5 years. For certain.
@FirstYear,
Just you knowing that you will not be doing this in 5 years should make the slavery of teaching a bit easier for you until your transition. Good luck…and don’t let an occasional “better” day (most teachers can’t even say a “good” day) make you think otherwise (although it looks like your mind is made up which is great!).
More bs emotional stroking from the UFT head honcho in NY:
Dear colleagues,
Wednesday is going to be a very hectic and intense day as our students from the communities that have suffered the most return to school. But I know that you, even those of you dealing with your own losses and trauma, will meet the challenge and be there to offer support for kids and meet the challenges.
I have already seen or heard about countless acts of generosity and compassion as our members volunteered in hurricane shelters as the storm hit and then threw themselves into the relief efforts this past week to get warm clothing, cleaning materials, food and building supplies to the shore neighborhoods that desperately needed them. Just today, thousands of UFT members are spending Election Day volunteering in those communities. Members from Murrow HS, for instance, have fanned out to the Rockaways, Coney Island and Midland Beach, Staten Island, today to do whatever they can. You asked for this opportunity on the UFT Facebook page, and the DOE, at our request, gave the green light as long as your principal consented.
But as we take care of our students and communities, we need to take care of each other, too. If you know UFT members who lost loved ones or have been displaced or left homeless as a result of the storm, please ask them to fill out our Urgent Assistance Form online at http://www.uft.org/sandy-help or print out the paper form and get it to them. If you yourself have suffered such losses, please complete the form, too. UFT reps are reading these forms as they come in and matching our members with the assistance they need as quickly as possible.
If you were among the more fortunate, please consider making a monetary donation to the UFT Disaster Relief Fund for our Hurricane Sandy campaign. Your money will go to fellow UFT members in dire need. Go to http://www.uft.org/donate/hurricane-sandy-relief to make an online donation or send a check payable to the UFT Disaster Relief Fund to at the UFT Disaster Relief Fund, c/o Vice President Karen Alford, UFT, 52 Broadway, 14th floor, New York, NY 10004.
As educators, nurses and child care providers, we dedicate our lives to helping the young, the frail and the vulnerable. Extending ourselves when someone is in need comes naturally. Your actions during these past 10 days have proven that time and again. I could not be more humbled or proud.
Stay strong.
Sincerely,
Michael Mulgrew
Michael Mulgrew
Diff: this sounds like New York authorized a paid school day for teachers to help out during the election. Is this the case? Did some teachers feel compelled to ‘help’ get out the Democratic’ vote? It would be hard to not “volunteer’ if the boss is “authorizing” your “personal choice decision ” to assist? This sounds like a very deliberate and crafty self-serving move?
Teachbaby, I’m no longer employed so I don’t know all the details, but yes, that’s exactly what it looks/sounds like. Looks like they got what they wanted too so it’s 4 more years of….no comment.
Party aside, I definitely always hated how us teachers had a certain political side pushed on us. It’s wrong no matter what party you do or don’t like.
To MTB and diff: I want to come out of the closet . I am a registered republican and know how intolerant my inner city co-workers world be. Hiding and so afraid of the reprisals…hmmm,, is this America?? Lol
So that you won’t feel alone, I want to officially come out of the closet, too: I, too, am a registered Republican.
My small-town co-workers don’t care. But when I taught some classes at a university, it would have been easier to admit to being a cannibal!
What? Republicans are not all cannibals? Wow, the things you learn on Teachbad (sorry, somebody had to do it).
Not all. A few of us, maybe…
Teachbaby,
Same here. I’ll never understand how the others think as they do. I have very strong opinions about it all. Anyway….