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I sure don't fancy sitting in a soup kitchen line after having raised my children and working for the government. Believe me, the world needs to keep me medicated for as long as it can. =D (okay fine I'm not on anything but I'm also pretty sure we all know I should be! Stop stop!! DONT YOU KNOW WHO I AM!!?? I PLAYED A SECIAN!!! STOPPPPPP)


Undoubtedly the #1 red flag!

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Should the educators of today have that to look forward to? I'm sure it makes a great incentive plan for teaching our children. She's just an example of what is happening. Just an example of what we all have to look forward to ourselves.


Your question is a thought provoking one. I guess the bottom line is that you take advantage of the system or the system takes advantage of you. It's my observation that teachers, particularly elementary school teachers, are conformists who thrive in a very structured, predictable system with orderly rules. Perhaps it was different for your grandmother but nowadays teachers are told what to do and what to say, if not what to think. It's a nice, secure place to be for people who are comfortable in that environment. They want the kids they teach to grow up and be conformists too, even if they make a point to express appreciation for diversity. The advantage for them, I think, is that they get to live a sort of Stepford existence, generally regarded as moral, community-minded, upstanding citizens. The problem is that it's not unlike living in a fish bowl; there's no swimming past the glass.

It's like that to one degree or another for all of us, I suppose. Cogs in the machine, some more or less than others.