Classrooms have become pressure cookers — In case you haven’t heard, there is a nationwide teacher shortage going into the 2022–2023 school year. If it was not so tragic, it would be humorous. On my Facebook feed, approximately one out of every ten posts is a school or school district lamenting the shortage of teachers. Some…

Words from the sage on the stage — This past June I completed my 35th year of teaching, having first entered the classroom in 1987. Sometimes it seems like I just started doing this, but other times I stop and realize the students in my first graduating class are now 52 years old. My first students are now…

Sometimes freedom seems like a zero-sum game — There has been a lot of talk regarding freedom these past few years about bodily sovereignty, the shutdown of small businesses, and the shelter-in-place orders during COVID, as well as gun rights, religion in government, and just about anything else where one person felt their freedom was being impinged upon. …

Reading biographies can tell you much about a person — I have to confess a hobby of mine is reading biographies of people who are big names in politics and in the media. …

Changes are coming — Today is a special day for me. It is the last day of my last summer vacation. Let me unpack that for you. For 12 years of elementary and high school, five years of college, and 36 years of teaching, summer for me has always been “summer vacation.” At the…

It’s time to admit Trump will never go to prison. But why? — I hate to say it, but Donald Trump is not going to prison. Today they announced the first of the January 6th insurrectionists, Guy Reffitt, was sentenced to 87 months in prison for his participation in the event. Reffitt brought several guns to Washington D.C. and carried one onto the…

We are awash in a sea of stuff — I don’t do well when there are too many things in front of me. I first discovered this when I was a small child and my mother would take me with her shopping in large department stores. As we went up one aisle and down another, I would feel myself…

They can’t stop thinking about it — Is it just me, or do conservatives spend a lot of time and energy talking about sex? There is no question about it. Conservatives have an obsession with sex. It’s not that they aren’t concerned about other things too. They are. They spend a good amount of time whining about…

How far do we want this to go? — The stories are appearing more frequently in the news now that Roe v. Wade was overturned. In Hayward, Wisconsin, a small town in the northwestern quadrant, a cashier at the local Walgreens refused to sell a couple some condoms because of his faith. …