Gail's Blog

I just took my car apart. Not the engine, heaven forbid! Like an archaeologist on a dig, I excavated my trunk and back seat. The top layers related to the teaching I'm doing now. This included the children's books, teaching texts, dress-ups and favorite markers I've used lately.  The second layer (sub-stratum?) consisted of the stories and materials I used last Spring at a completely different school. On the bottom laid (still) an old boombox, six "big books", and workout clothes I neglected to bring in after the gym (euw). There was a hand mixer somewhere in there, and greeting cards from last Christmas' students. Did I mention a cold-cup I forgot I had? The list goes on. When I quit my my part-time teaching job two years ago to take full-time work I brought everything I'd stored in my large classroom home. When I started teaching full-time I found out that most teachers use their cars as storage lockers. "Don't bring it in! There's no room

Thanksgiving is a bore, isn't it? We don't get much time off. We have no presents to get or give. There's no chocolate involved. Why, there aren't even any special drinks, like eggnog or champagne associated with the holiday! How can this be an American holiday? It's passe. It was invented in a much less cool era, the time of homemakers, gingham, wind-up clocks, and telephone operators. It was officially fixed in our calendar in 1941, after all. I don't think Thanksgiving is cool enough for our time. We need an alternative Thanksgiving Day. Maybe we should call a truce, where Tea Party people and Occupied people (not those who are occupied, the yearning masses longing to breath free, but the folks who occupy, when they aren't at work) have drinks and talk sports instead of the usual agita. What would we call a day like that? No, not the day hell freezes over. I don't think so. So pessimistic. Could we call it Improbably Optimistic Day? Impossibly Sensi