A Geek History of Time - Episode 327 - Three Teachers Who Stayed Part II

Episode Date: August 1, 2025

see people when they click on this they'll see the title so they'll be like poor ed what is that even fucking mean however because it's england that's largely ignored and unstudied. I really wish for the sake of my sense of moral righteousness that I could get away with saying no. He had a goddamn ancestral home and a noble title until Germany became a republic. You know, none of this highfalutin, you know, critical role stuff. So they chewed through my favorite shit.

No, I'm not helping them. I'm going to say that you're getting into another kind of, you know, Mediterranean oer, psyche archetype kind of thing. Makes sense. Also, trade wins are a thing. Ha, ha, just serious.

Like, no, he really has a mat on it. You know, we'll go upon a tangent. As we keep doing. Like, yeah, this is how we fill time. This is a geek history of time. This is a geek history of time. Where we connect nerdery to the real world. world. My name is Ed Blaylock. I'm a world history teacher here in Northern California. And this

week, I spent a significant portion of one afternoon giggling like a school kid because a sword I had ordered a number of months ago arrived a month early. And it is absolutely beautiful. It is everything I had hoped that it would be, and I actually asked Damien for some Latin advice for mottos to put on the blade. And I've also decided that my wife needs to make me a sticker to put on the pommel using her cricket. I need a sticker of the Rebellion logo. So I'm going to stick on the wheel palm a little fit really nicely right there.

So that's my excitement. for the week. How about you, sir? Well, I'm Damien Harmony. I'm a U.S. history teacher up here in Northern California at the high school level. I've told you about the mischief I've made with all the gnomes and whatnot, right? Yeah, yeah. So, and I, normally I'm the one that doesn't date things here, but I'm going to date this. So the recording is many months before the release on this one. I worked junior prom and senior ball, and those are two of my favorite things to work all the time. It's just so much fun because it's the kids dress up often for the first time. It's their

first big formal thing. I get to kind of hold that space for them. The kicker is that like you have to as an adult be careful the compliments that you give people on how dressed nicely they are when they are minors. So yeah, I'm usually all about the color. The problem is the venue had a very, very blue light that just flushed everything out. So I would tell the kids, I'm like, that looks lovely on you. I have no idea what color that is. And they're like, oh, we'll come to the lobby. I'm like, oh, when you leave, just wave at me and I'll get to see the color it is. Because everything looked blue. It was, you know, and I mean like hot pink looked blue. There was a really cool, like the other thing is I noticed there's like trends that happen. Yeah. Usually with the girls dresses, but also

with the guys uh tuxes like one year it was like everybody was wearing velvet tuxes i'm like that's sweaty um this year the boys were wearing really really shiny like not shiny like they've been buffed but like rhinestone or decorated blinged out shoes okay all right so that was cool kind of makes sense i can see that the girls were wearing like what's the word um is it you know like a hummingbird's chest you know how it's like different colors and iridescent the girls were wearing iridescent dresses, and that was really cool to see them really enjoying themselves in that. So I loved it.

Just fantastic time. Always fun to see the kids having a good time. My friend runs the dances. He's fantastic at it. I brought Cappy Barras with me to the prom and hid them all over the place and started pointing to them and noticing them. And there have been a couple kids that I've blamed for doing it because they see it at school, like wherever these capybara's highland uh highland highland hows um sheep multiple versions of um of gnomes

yeah and so like i'd see a kid reaching for one i'm like it's you and they're like what i said yeah you're the one putting them up there i just saw you and she no no i was pulling it down i'm like that's exactly what i would say if i got caught putting one up there and so i've done this with like multiple kids. So I noticed a copy barra at the prom. And I told the guy, I'm like, dude, I think whoever's putting these things is here. It's one of your juniors. And he went and he told the administration and they all gawked at it and stuff like that because nobody knows that it's been me. So it's just been so far. You're like, you're like Zorro. Kind of, yeah. So. anyway so that's that's what i got going on uh cool finally ran out of gnomes is really what it is

yeah so but okay so last time we spoke we yeah we interviewed three teachers and yes we're kind of just charting out their life as to why they became teachers and what they loved about teaching yeah because they are a part of the ones who didn't leave and so yeah because we recorded so much we needed to cut this in half so that's why y'all are hearing this that's why last episode didn't have any plugs at the end this one will yeah um but uh so yeah uh please enjoy the second half with manuel tessa and erin and why they stayed um i i think actually let's uh let's skip out on mine and ed's because we talk about this shit all the time. But let me ask y'all, you know,

I like to take you on the sine wave, the roller coaster. What keeps you coming back? What drives you? I'm combining those questions as well. What drives you as a teacher? What keeps you coming back? It may or may not tie back to your favorite thing about being a teacher. You know, I have a mortgage.

It certainly drives me. but also for me I'll just say fascism drives me like the the ongoing recognition of the repeat of it absolutely drives me to do this

like I always had a missionary zeal with what I did whether I was teaching Latin or not that's the funny part was like a lot of people like oh that was totally irrelevant I'm like that's the joke but I absolutely see

public education and what I'm doing specifically as the bulwark against it so that even though our generation failed miserably to answer the call hopefully the next generation can you know take up the banner and and start pushing back and so or at least be aware of like how and when to get out like I don't care either way you can defeat it by leaving But for me, it genuinely is. That's what keeps me coming back. That's what keeps me designing my lessons and stuff. Now, the good news is that it also fits with the California state standards, but in case

anybody ever checks. But that's what drives me is knowing that I'm sending these kids out to be adults in a world that sees them only as commodities for the state, and I'll be damned. So I refuse to be compliant in that. and I continue to arm them against that. And if they take a while to figure it out, that's okay. I have to tell myself that. But, like, at some point, there will be something that drops in.

It'll be like, this is what he's talking about. So that's what drives me. Ed, what drives you? And what's coming back? I mean, for me, it's that urgency. Yeah, a variation on that theme. I, I, ever since I got into public education, my job as the social studies teacher is to prepare kids to be voters. Mm.

You know, that's, that's the way the system is supposed to be working. Mm-hmm. And, you know, I want to do my part in making every kid who leaves my room at least a little bit more likely to be. to be somebody who gives a shit and is going to pay attention and vote that's that's it yeah that's what it boils down to

for me so um that's all very you know um civic minded and all but um you know that's that's it that's it yeah that's what it boils down to uh how about for you all um Aaron, what about you?

I would say, well, I had a defining moment when I went back after I had my first daughter. And I realized my daughter's name is Adrian. And I saw these kids in my class on the first day and I thought, oh, these are somebody's Adrian. And somebody loves them as much as I love my kid. And then I thought, or they don't. And I was crushed at that thought. And I had a lot of foster students that year. And I had a lot of motherless girls who maybe their mothers died or the mother left the picture.

They were being raised by other family members and things like that. So that specific year after having my own first baby and just realizing that those kids weren't getting everything that my kid was getting, it made me want to give them. them, everything I can in the classroom setting and not overstepping my role. Like, I'm not going to be their mom and I can't take the place of that. But I want my kids to know that they are loved. And I have that one year with them. And even if they don't really learn all the standards, yes, I want that to happen too. But if they know that I really cared about them and they have that to sort of bolster them

through the next few years and and some of them come back and visit me and all of those things um i i want them to have that one year where they know that they were they were loved and that someone thought they were amazing that's um that's what drives me and keeps me coming back and gives me a different lens to view them from too nice uh manuel how about you yeah well i mean I really do enjoy it. Like I genuinely enjoy the day to day with my 11th and 12th graders. And especially since I started teaching ethnic studies, doing better to more intentionally help young people recognize the humanity in themselves and in others.

It's just been really transformative for myself and for a lot of my students and just having those human experiences together. And, of course, helping them see that they do have a place. place, but that they are so much more than what's said about them online or what their test scores show or what their teachers might say. And, you know, in our ethnic studies classes, we start each class period with an ancestor acknowledgement where a student goes up to the front of the class and acknowledges somebody from either from their family or from their past who's passed away.

And there's just the most kindhearted sweetest messages. And it kind of going back to Aaron's point reminds me that like, yeah, this is a kid on my roster or whatever, but there's somebody's grandchild, somebody's child. And, you know, this person that they're acknowledging there might be a grandparent, might be an uncle. In some cases, this sibling who passed away. Like, this student is everything to them. And this student is up there expressing the heart and the emotion and the warm memories of their ancestor. and they would be so proud of this student if they could see them now. And just remembering that it's, you know,

as we deal with the day-to-day calamities, the day-to-day challenges of our world, political and otherwise, like these are humans who are just trying to figure it out. And even my most challenging students, I've seen that they really just want to live a healthy, happy life. They just want to feel seen and acknowledge and just have a place and find their place wherever that might be might be and it's just such a joy to be part of that day and day out and it's fun and it's just like it's dynamic and it's just like I mean I just I love it so

so yeah being part of that experience with these young people and being able to share space with them like that keeps me coming back that's cool tessa I think it's actually some of the most challenging moments that are what drive me. And it's things like creating a space that challenges their understanding of the world around them, but not just like from the way that like science works, but like how when we, we talk about a scientist who made some really great contributions to science but is overall just like an entirely shitty human being and talking about that and having them grapple with that really awful people can do really good things and really good people can do really

awful things and getting them to stop thinking in black and white and continuing to challenge them in ways that sometimes creates difficult moments that I get the privilege, I guess, of helping them navigate, because in challenging them and teaching them how to process, I create a safe space for them. And I've had kids have sexuality crises under my desk as I'm teaching because we had a conversation at lunch and they're still in the processing phase and they know that they can be under my desk

and that I will avert the other kids and I will let them have that moment being under the desk with a kid who's going through a really hard conversation with a family member just even though they're furious at me because I was the person that had to make the call but they still wanted me under that desk with them even this year with the kids who are some of the most difficult kids I've ever had

when the ice raids started they hijacked community circle and they wanted to talk about it and they knew that in my class that they could and they knew that we would have that conversation and we would be honest and we could we could talk about those hard things and they could share their fears and, you know, being, being that space and being able to provide tangible things for them because, like, some of them were really worried, you know, about their family members and how they were going to be affected.

We're a Title I district. Yeah. And we talked a lot about Fight Club that day and what it meant to not talk about Fight Club. And I guess it's the fact that they trusted me enough to take that, even though they're not very nice to me. At the end of the day, they know that if push comes to shove, that that space exists and that that space is there to keep them safe. And that that's probably what does it. all right so

for our next question you may have to think really hard because well we same for the the last third of the yeah because our particular job

changed very dramatically and the culture around our job changed very dramatically in 2020 with COVID. And especially, you know, I mean, all across the world, you know, teachers had to deal with various, various things that happened in regard to lockdown or whatever. But, you know, we had here in California, you know, depending on county and district and whatever, we had very, you know, widely different experiences of how lockdown got handled and how soon we went back and all that kind of stuff.

what do you remember this many years after all of that? What do you remember about what it was like pre-COVID? Ben Wall, what do you think? Oh, go ahead. No, I was going to say, we should probably have you and Aaron answer first because you had the most years pre-COVID out of all of us. so there you go no but you ask the question so kick it to man well go for yeah yeah the years before covid feel like a lifetime ago they feel like several careers ago even though i was a classroom

teacher as i am now um i will say it felt like we were starting to see electronic devices become a problem. We were starting to see the rise of mental health challenges associated with social media and others. So I was starting to see a change in my students as compared to students that I had in the earlier 2000s. But still, it was a largely analog in-person experience before the lockdown. And although there were challenges, of course, there's already political turmoil at my school certainly that you know

during the Trump administration there was just a lot of the first term just a lot of fear and anxiety like you know it's not that things were were great before the lockdown but it still felt human in a way

that it feels less than now so yeah okay Aaron what do you think what's your recollection one of the big ones was that we all just came to work sick he did not take sick days right because it's just too much work to do sub plans

so or to clean up the whatever chaos happened with your sub when you were gone that was the that's one thing that really sticks out and then we it was a weird trajectory happening with all of the testing like his common core had come in and then now they had the big casp test and all these things

so there was a big focus on laptops for kids where that was a new thing before COVID which then led to them having some knowledge that they needed that they wouldn't have had otherwise I'm so not a fan

of this testing I hate it but I wonder I don't think we would have had all the devices now that I just reflect back on it. It's a weird thing that the kids had had so much, well, depending on your grade, right? Like little kids hadn't, but the kids had had so much hands on that they wouldn't have had. Not that it was a good thing either. Like tech was starting to make such a presence in the classroom before COVID. So that's what I remember. I have blocked so much out. I don't I don't remember because I had a series of principals too. So so much.

much of my my memory is like oh is that principal and that superintendent like there's so much going on at every different layer of this educational system there's just this like it's like a job breaker right yeah yeah you know i'm going to jump in here because we work in the same district and it was there was a shift happening we are one of the few districts that like moms for liberty never attacked

that the proud boys never came to our meetings or anything like that and I firmly believe it's because have you guys ever seen World War Z where okay the zombies attack healthy bodies they don't attack people with cancer like so none of these

None of these groups were attacking us because we were already. They looked at us like, oh, no, no, they're already imploding. It's fine. And we got skipped over. But like I remember 2019, right up to COVID, right? 2019 to 2020. That was what I called the year of the riots because we only had two administrators and we only had two campus monitors. And we ended up having to split the lunches.

because there just was not enough bodies to separate the bodies from tearing the bodies apart and because our district was so poisonous to itself they had canceled they took the one recommendation from the Black Parallel School Board that was at the bottom of the list of like and once you've done all these things

then get rid of SROs because the police are brutalizing our kids in our neighborhoods and we don't want them doing it at schools that was the only thing the district did they got rid of SROs and nothing else they didn't do any of the other steps that the black parallel school board specifically said do these things first and so then there's no SROs but not only did the district get rid of SROs which I was fine with but it's like do the other things first but also they didn't pay the last quarter's worth of contract and so when we actually had to call the police to stop what was going on. They put us on hold for 17 minutes, and I kid you not, my administrator was told by the dispatcher,

well, maybe this time, next time your district will pay its bills. Which, I mean, I've long said that the police are an organized gang with shiny badges, but wow, nice school, be ashamed if something happened to it. Yeah, you know,

but nice school, be a shame if something happened to it, right? But that was like the year right before COVID. I was watching the squeeze of our district tear down the program that I had built from nothing. And I was seeing it get encroached upon and accroached upon it. And then when COVID hit, I knew it was dead. So I was seeing that I did see an uptick in cheating, which because kids that figured out Google Translate, but I explained to them all the ways that didn't work. And that was pre-COVID. So it was almost like, and there's a question coming at you guys next, it's almost like

the things that are fault lines now were hairlines then. Yeah. And I was starting to trip over the hairlines a little bit. So that's, and because Aaron and I work in the same district, I can piggyback on a lot of what you said there. Like we had had bad idea after bad idea after bad idea because we had shiny tie superintendent and then placeholder superintendent and then trompansy superintendent. And and it just, I mean, it was just a rain of diarrhea down on us. And it just, it started flooding.

So. You're putting it very nicely. Yes. Yes. Yes. I I yes it's how we became friends actually A reign of diarrhea brought us together It did it did so

Tessa how about you How this cat claws okay sorry She's like wedged in here and she's cloying me Um okay Pre-covid Okay Save the during and post-COVID for the next question Yeah I'm thinking pre-covid

pre-COVID it sounds so mean I don't like it um are you going to say that they felt smarter yeah I am they were way more capable I was assigning like I taught them how to write

full lab reports in seventh grade my seventh graders were doing inquiry like scaffolded inquiry labs they were writing lab reports using the structures with again just sentence frames send starters I would get actual papers back and I would be able to grade them and like I even would do things like I would give them feedback just like on their writing not as like part of their grade because it was I was looking at the standards but like I would give them feedback because I remember one mom got so mad at me

for that it was really funny um but like like they could read, I could give them an assignment. Because I was somebody who I did a district like grant program to be able to share a Chromebook cart. But like I was teaching them how to use the device and we were including it in like specific ways. And like they could do basic troubleshooting. Like when you, when you talk.

taught them something after a couple of times they would retain it and then they would use it on their own they would apply it to situations um i used to asking for responses that were like five to seven sentences um i didn't have to be as um like almost like pathologically clear, if that's a sense in my directions. Like I didn't have to think so hard about where information wouldn't be inferred, like reasonably inferred. Yeah. Oh, God, of course, hang on, I have the vacuum goes off on its own. It's going to be really loud. Hold on.

but like it was it and I feel like there was also behaviorally there was more there was accountability for their actions and I don't mean like that they would you know get like the book thrown at them or anything because I mean it was pre-COVID that we as our bargaining unit were pushing for our SROs to be removed from campus as well um But they were held to expectations, and when the expectations were not followed, they had consequences that would happen. And the consequences would deter them from repeating the behaviors most of the time. Not all of the time, of course. It also was, I don't know, they were more curious. they they would look things up um but like not to cheat like we would do i used to do this structure building project um where we would learn about natural disasters and they could pick earthquake volcano tsunami or a combination if they were feeling particularly capable

who am i to stifle creativity um and they would build a structure they would think about what they wanted to prevent they would research materials and it was so cool we were doing one group pick volcanoes and they had noticed in sixth grade that pompey struck the structures in pompey didn't degrade with the ash so there was something that despite the acidic levels of the volcanic ash they wouldn't get eaten away because they through their research one of the things that you find is that the damage from the ash is actually because of the acidity of it it's not actually the weight it's not the heat it's not anything like that and so they were looking up like what went into those structures um which at the time you said you said these were six graders seven graders seventh graders figured just naturally coming wow okay and so but like that was the thing was at the time that was kind of what i expected from them because that was what they were doing yeah there's not when that that that doesn't hold off on that now so that's yeah like that's that's what it was with pre-covid they were

yeah it was like they valued education there was a value to education knowledge mattered yeah yeah um I'm just going to throw in on the tail end of that What I remember is a longer attention span. I remember that. And I remember lots and lots and lots of paper. And I mean, that sounds glib, but you all have covered everything else I kind of wanted to say so well that those are the two things I can add. Yeah All right

So that's pre-COVID What was it like for you all during the lockdown We had a whole episode Of this podcast About the lockdown And what we were saying It's episode I think 46 Yeah

It's a hell of a time capsule I go back to a listen to it Every once in a while actually But I am intensely curious Because I know what Aaron in my experience was like, at least structurally. But Manuel, you were podcasting at that time too, and we talked a bit. But what was it like for you day to day during the lockdown?

Like what were the structures and how did it feel? Yeah, the day to day, I mean, it really felt like being almost like a just a talk radio host and, you know, just waiting for the next caller because all the cameras were off for sure. I teach high schoolers. A lot of the high schoolers, like, they may or may not have logged in, but I didn't know if they were there. A lot of them were legitimately working or doing whatever they could to try to help their family out. A lot of them lived in areas that even our district provided hotspots were like not good enough. So their connection was trash.

So, yeah, I was doing my best to keep it positive and to have, you know, just the tools that would work regardless of your internet connection. And largely, I was like at the microphone feeling like a radio host, hoping for some interaction in the comments and, oh, so-and-so said this. What do you all think? But yeah, it was, I wiped a lot of it from my memory, to be honest. I didn't get too angry or frustrated over it because I knew or I felt like the world's falling apart. So, like, you know, I'm not going to get mad at them for not being active and not having their cameras on and not responding. responding. You know, what are we even doing? Like, you know, so like, you know, our, we had a modified schedule. So the classes were pretty short. And then the evenings, the afternoons were like,

you know, for one-on-one appointments, you know, checking with students, whatever. But I didn't take it. I honestly, I did not take the teaching part too seriously. I did what I could to just be a positive presence, not knowing what it might be like on the other side of the camera. And, hey, man, everybody passed. Everybody got their credit as long as I saw you at some point. points doing something and that was that yeah tessa how about you well i mean i had the joy and wonder of being on the bargaining team and having just joined that year so boy howdy did i learn that shit real fast um so i I spent a lot of time bargaining how everything was going to be. And I think the most annoying thing about the whole thing was the fact that they treated us like a bunch of morons who couldn't do anything or wouldn't do anything unless they were micromanaging us with an inch of our lives.

And I was like, do you guys need to talk to someone? Are you guys okay? Like I understand that we all feel a little out of control right now, but like you are just going to piss me off. and it's going to be your problem not mine um so that was wild because most of it was bargaining every step of the way and like we had oh my god we had nights where we were going to like one a m a couple we trauma bonded oh yeah you and i talked a lot about that stuff yeah we did what are you guys doing what are you guys doing yeah what are you guys doing yeah i mean there was one they were we were sitting there and oh my god i don't remember what his rule our district

makes rolls that we go uh what do they do though he had one i don't remember stan was doing something though he was on the other side of the bargaining table and uh we were doing our virtual and this was because uh had produce and this was back when it was like oh you're not going to be able to go to store at all so i was chopping up a pepper and apparently me with a very large knife on the other side of the screen was apparently slightly uncomfortable and I was like I can't get you through the screen

yeah um but with the students I think we were just so it was also weird because like our daughter was maybe like I don't know 15 months old or something so she's trainee we're both home and

we everything was on fire at the time that also happened that was fun um it was just really like trying to make it fun for the kids because they like wouldn't really they didn't do a modified schedule which was the weirdest thing we could not comprehend they wouldn't do a modified schedule and then they made us have meetings like all the time like I vividly remember too during a lockdown the insurrection happened they actually kept holding our staff meeting

our virtual staff meeting while they're literally storming the Capitol and we're all sitting there like I remember just being really frustrated with everybody in charge because nobody that was in charge should have been in charge by any of the actions that they did

at every level but we were making it like a lot of us were making it fun for the kids because like you know TikTok had just started so like I had started making sourdough and I would just make like stupid sourdough videos to just annoy them or make I made like yoga videos except I don't know how to do yoga so I would just play animal crossing music and just make up poses like ridiculous poses

and just like post those um and then when we started doing the online classes like I just because they couldn't hang out with each other so I spent a lot of time like keeping the Zoom open for them like after school so they could come in and like we would arrange among us games and I would just play with the kids while they were on the Zoom it was it was like those little things which apparently they really liked because some of them told me about it a couple years later but like I mean what else you couldn't like do anything because like everybody was being collectively traumatized at the same time. So I think, like, most of us were just trying to find ways to make it, like, quirky and fun and try to distract them for a little bit because, I mean, what else could you? I did a COVID unboxing to teach them about how the virus worked. I forgot about that until right now. And, like, did the whole, like, welcome back to my channel. Like, I did, like, I don't do those things, but I was just trying to give them some semblance of, like, escape from everything.

Everything horrible? Like, God, it was unreal. And then, like, my kid would go outside who was, like, barely walking and have these kids that all their cameras were off. And I'd be talking to no one. Take her outside for a minute where she'd be, like, sitting in a puddle causing chaos. Come back, talk to a wall. Except there was one incident. every like Friday I think we would do like a question

and the question was designed to piss them off because they would unmute if I could piss them off and I asked them is cereal a soup nice and I had one kid who never unmuted for anything and they were all so mad like the chat was blowing up

they were unmuting and yelling and this one kid she unmutes and just goes Serial's not a soup it's an abomination and then when we came back in person they like enshrined that on the wall she was so angry it was so funny

it was the weirdest time how was it for you Erin you're an elementary teacher so you had just one class like all of us had like rotators yeah um so the year we went out i just um i loved that group so much so i was kind of mourning the time that i lost with them but i wanted to still try to make it special um and we did like a promotion a zoom promotion and all these things and i was just amazed at how much the kids like they were logging on because they so desperately

needed connection so that I really enjoyed that I had I was sad I lost that time with the group but that we went through that moment together, this moment history. And I kept telling them like, you guys, you're going to tell your families about this when you have grandkids. And then when we came back, I feel like I was really lucky I had six graders because they could navigate the technology on their own. And so I was able. And I had a Zoom. My expectation was that they had the screens on, but I had a lot of the parents before because I had had siblings. So it made it easier that I had already known a lot of these people.

So they all had their screens on. And I just looked at it as this is a weird time in history. It's going to end. Let me enjoy it as much as I can. So I had just a whole little schedule that I kept to. I had to get dressed every day. Like I knew I could. If I go in sweats, like, I'm going to, I'm just going to portray that to the kids, kind of,

if I'm not, like, I had to wear my jewelry every day. Like, I had to get dressed and go through the whole motion of it. But they, I was worried I wasn't going to have that same connection and the inside jokes and all of these things. And you realize, oh, the parents can hear everything I'm saying all the time. But I did get to the point where I was like, well, I don't care. This is me. and the kids, we did kind of create this little unique bond that we were all sharing this experience.

They knew my garbage day because it was like every Monday, same time, they heard the garbage trucks. They heard when I was yelling at my kids sometimes because my own kids were supposed to be on Zoom for their class. And they would hear that just real life at my house or the timer went off because my banana bread was ready, whatever. So even when my daughter, we took her to Santa Cruz to drop her off for school, and they got to go with me. So from the motel, I'm teaching the class. And it was just a weird moment in history. I never want to do it again.

But it didn't feel like it was a loss, like a total waste of time. Like I do feel that we got some good learning in. I was really proud of that group. I was proud of the parents, how they handled it. I lucked out for sure with the group I had and with the grade I had and my own time of my own life. Like I didn't have a baby at home. I don't know how I would have done that. I didn't have a sick parent or anything myself.

So I was really lucky just my own timeline of when this all happened in my own life. I knew it was going to end. So I just tried to enjoy it. Despite our district, I won't even touch all that. Like, that was insane. Oh. So I won't even, yeah. Get into all that.

Yeah. Yeah, Ed, go for it. Yeah, my, my biggest recollections are the chaos at the beginning. Like, just having absolutely no clue what, what was going to happen, getting sent home. and then told on our way out the door don't come back tomorrow and nobody's coming back next week and like we had known

something was going to need to happen and my district and that county's health officer had had been like no we're not gonna we're not gonna quit we're not gonna do it whatever and then just you know

all the domino is falling and us getting told no go home don't come back and then there being a week of nothing And I wasn't on, I was a union rep for my site, but I wasn't on the bargaining team. So then when the district came back and said, okay, here's your schedule going, what the fuck are you on? Like, you know, looking at the way they wanted our day to be structured. I was just like, this is bonkers.

And then it all became normal, so fast. You know, it was surreal and it was chaotic and I spent, again, a whole lot of time talking to a wall. And a couple of times I told people, you know what, I'm going to throw my union rep badge out in the middle of the street like Gary Cooper in high noon. Like, you know, I'm done with all of you people because the folks on my site were just like, difficult. I don't want to say awful. They were like, yeah, I had, I had some issues on that end. But, you know, it was just how we got through that year. Did your districts do that thing, too, where, like, you were getting weird emails for, like, two weeks leading up to it, where they were asking you to make, like, a certain number of emergency subplands for no reason.

Yeah. Yeah. We just really need them by this day. We need this many. Oh, you know what? Now I think we need this many. and I was just sitting there like going Aaron

do you say it out loud his name say his name just say his name yeah Aaron do you remember the contact logs we had to do

and that they were trying to tell sped teachers that they still had to go to site yeah it was just oh it that barely scratches the surface of fucked upedness

we told them straight up we're like oh so you're like oh so you're going to take the sped kids and use them as the experiment to see whether or not all the, this is cheap things work. That's kind of fucked up. I remember telling in our bargaining thing, I remember telling them that

this is, what did I call it? I said, this is passive eugenics that you're engaging in. Just straight up told them. I think we said something similar. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, so, Yeah. We've talked about pre-COVID and lockdown. What has it been like since COVID? What do we notice about the trend or trends that we've seen since then? Tessa, you look eager. I'm just, it's nothing nice.

This is a problem. I feel like I'm just coming. off as some crotchy old lady um oh the expectations are in the toilet they took the like give them grace which oh my god i hate hearing that so much and they turn that into a they're responsible for nothing and we have zero expectations for them and we are never going to challenge them or make them feel uncomfortable ever again and and I don't blame COVID for what I am seeing. I blame the way that the adults have chosen to respond to it.

And it is infantilizing these children and damaging them in ways that is creating a gap that we will never be able to fill. Because every time, and this drives me bad shit, every time I mention something that I noticed with my students, people start asking what grade they were in when, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter what grade they were in COVID. It doesn't matter. They can't read. They can't read. They're in sixth grade, and they are reading at a first grade level. and it has nothing to do with COVID because COVID was not five years of lockdown. And they have a gap that is getting wider and wider and wider. And I do not even bother having them write more than a paragraph at this point.

My paragraphs have gotten to be three to four sentences. Even if I ask them to highlight the things that I'm looking for, we do not highlight that. um my directions have gotten i have literally had parents tell me that the child plagiarizing is acceptable because in my directions it doesn't say that they can't do that i have had to in my directions start including that their work needs to be their own and that they cannot plagiarize um which brings me back to that first thing of i didn't have to actively try to find all of the weird places that people would purposefully misinterpret my directions or that kids would just miss things that should reasonably be inferred but

they they don't because they don't have those reasoning skills are not being developed. The reading skills are not being developed. The, I am having to teach literacy in a way. Because, like, I've always seen teaching sciences. I would look at it as teaching a second language because it is.

You're looking at Latin and Greek prefixes and suffixes. You're looking at German. I mean, these are things that they need to have those language things. But like, when your articles at lowest or at a fourth grade reading level, it's the lowest flexile you can put it in and your kids are collectively reading at a first or second, they need to be able to comprehend 90% of the vocab in something in order to be able to comprehend the content. They can't do it.

And I do not have the time, unfortunately, to do the, the scaffolds that are necessary for their language development, just in general literacy, not even like science literacy, like just reading a paragraph. The behaviors are also really extreme. And it's because there was a lot of, we were seeing a lot of students not being held accountable for actions. We saw a streak of students purposefully destroying property for internet cloud. Oh, the TikTok trends, yeah.

Uh-huh. Our bathrooms still regularly are rendered useless because of students vandalizing it, like, on a monthly basis. Um, they are, I mean, they just, they see no value in learning. They see no value in being challenged. I regularly hear them say things, um, like maybe we shouldn't be learning history. anymore. Why do I need to know any of this? None of this matters. I've seen them an increase of students casually using slurs. Abelism, transphobia, homophobia. It's so hard to even begin to address it because it's so frequent. Like you can try, but it's just happening. It feels like

2001 again with people using the R word, using gay as an insult using a whole like it's it's wild to me um and the parents the parents have no respect for the profession and they treat you like you're a not all of them but a good majority talk to me like i'm beneath them like i don't know how to do basic things um and assume that district administration are like my manager it's it's been a wild shift and And it's, it's concerning, but it does, I mean, you guys know I have a German degree. If you don't know, I have a German degree. I had to study German history and everything.

And when you look at the events, I mean, it tracks, unfortunately. Like, it is kind of weird to sit and watch and see the parallels happening. but yeah it's it's it's a it's a stark stark stark difference and it's um it's hard because i don't i don't think most people in this profession i don't think anybody really knows what to do i think everybody wants to help but it's like where do you start right i would say what it's been like post-covid is it's just putting out fires and trying to fill holes on a boat that's actively the people are machine gunning actively yeah yeah manuel how about you well um honestly i think

that as educators just education system in totality i think we're in the midst of an existential crisis that we're not quite um able to recognize fully just yet. I think that the combination of the impacts of the pandemic, but also the impacts of technology have put us in the world where there is a legitimate question to be raised about like, what is the purpose of like class at this point? Like on our on our podcast where we just talk about news and education, we talked about an op-ed written by a Harvard, a junior. And she wrote op-ed about like, what's the point of being in class? Because Harvard's trying to adjust the fact that students are like absenteeism is like really high students aren't going to class like shocker and um and she's

writing she writes about like you know it's just it's useful at this point because in this digital world like you don't need to be physically present for transfer of information and like you know whatever whatever um and on the face of us like what do you mean you don't have to be in class like like going back to what tessa said that some students were saying like what what do you mean like what's the point what do you mean like why can't i plagiarize like just this whole idea of like things that we all take that we all see as like standard foundational to like the teaching and learning process like being in class not plagiarizing being curious like working through problems like things like that things that we take as no brainers younger students are like questioning and into them

it doesn't really make sense anymore and it is extremely frustrating for sure it's frustrating but also I think it is legitimate for us to really question like what does the future of teaching and learning look like because technology has changed so much about not just how young people learn, but just like what their life experience ends up being. And I think in my 21 years, as, you know, I reflect on no child left behind, as I reflect on race to the top, as I think about what's happening to the Department of Education right now and the dismantling of it, as I think about the anti-CRT, anti-woke hysteria and all that, honestly, I don't think there has been a bigger influencer, bigger voice, a bigger power in education than Silicon Valley.

When I think about how our young people learn, how they develop as adolescents, not just the social media, but just their connection to each other, and how much time they spend looking at screens, and then, of course, all the things that we do in class, ed tech and all that, but also now AI and just how much even college students are using AI to get through everything. And I sit back and think about like, I just can't think of anything that has had that big of an impact on teaching and learning. Not as much as I just like standardized testing and having to teach, you know, throughout various iterations of that. None of it has impacted young people the way Silicon Valley has, like none of it. So these unelected billionaires have had such a massive, massive influence on our classroom, on our profession, on what we experience, on even just trying to have a normal conversation with the kid and getting them to, like, look up from their phone or look up from their Chromebook for two seconds to freaking talk to me like a person.

And, you know, meanwhile, they're floating around on their private jets and sending celebrities to space. And here we are facing what I think is a dramatic shift in how here. human beings teach and learn. And I don't think it's trending in a positive direction for humanity, for civilization. And it is very frustrating. I think the pandemic just sped it all up. I think we'd be here regardless. But the pandemic certainly, you know, what was that thing?

We heard like 10 million times in the pandemic that like exacerbated, you know, problems that were already there. And it definitely did that. But yeah, it's quite disturbing, really. And I feel for the young people because if I, you know, if I'm a 15-year-old, But I'm thinking back to my 50-year-old self and how mad I got about her saying I can't switch out of the class and how I had a whole, like, protest about it all year. Like, because, you know, it's a 15-year. I'm not really thinking things through.

I don't really have a real read on long-term ramifications for my actions today. So if I were fully raised and socialized in a world where everything, where, like, an iPad was thrown in my face at, like, age two. And everything has been on-demand as I wanted. Everything has been click-click. Everything has been that way. I mean, how else would I, what would I be like as a kid? Especially in a class that's challenging. Like, why bother?

Whatever, whatever history you're teaching me, whatever, I could look that up. I can YouTube it. Like, what are you here for? So, yeah, it's scary. Well, it's one of those things, too, that you brought it up because also their algorithms are controlling. Yeah, absolutely. The kids have access to so they think that they can look it up, but they don't have that ability to filter through information. you know they've also got the fact where they can't use the technology really because

it's that algorithmic processing with the iPads and things they're used to really simple straightforward and they don't that's not the same but yeah I mean it is it I agree with that I think yeah that's a huge part of it Erin how about you? I 100% I think we would have been here anyway and COVID just accelerated it. My first year back, I felt bad. I actually had a pretty good group coming back full time. They just were so emotionally needy. And so it was just constant like social work.

And I'm not a therapist. And it was just constant therapy, group therapy, individual therapy. That's what I felt like work was for me that first year. but the kids were, I think, craving structure. And so they kind of jumped on board with that. But then I had that year, two years ago, where I was like, oh, this is it. You know, where I'm never going to have a normal year again. Last year, it kind of came up a little bit, but still so many emotional needs that I felt it was so unfair to put on classroom teachers.

Like, we cannot carry this weight for all of these kids. and be okay ourselves and have our own families. It's too much. And I think we've seen so many of our colleagues unable to carry that weight. Yeah. And so this year I feel like the universe has given me a little gift with this group I have because it did come up and they love. I have a group of learners and I have a few kids who have really motivated the rest.

Like when you don't have a class with somebody that wants to do that, it's hard to be as the adult. You're not going to be able to do that for them. But when you have some kids who really want that and then the other kids see what they're doing, then it's created this really fun environment that I didn't know if I was ever going to have it again. But the technology piece of it is it is terrifying. I don't understand parents with their kids in the shopping. cart and the iPhone and kids are never exploring the world around them.

They're just constantly bombarded with images and noises and they're never alone. Like we never leave our kids with their thoughts. And then the parents are always protecting them from any potential maybe bad feeling so the kids never have to learn to cope with anything. And I've had kids with their phones taken away because they've done something completely horrific and disgusting on their phones and someone else's parent wants us to take care of it because of what another kid has done on their phone in their house that we have no control over. So a phone's taken away at school. The parent comes. I've watched them get the phone

from the office and hand it right back to their kid. So we are really powerless to do anything except what we can do in our classroom and even that is often out of our control. So the trajectory of where we're going, yeah, it is terrifying. And so after all of this year, the election, all of this, I do sometimes go, well, in that plantation that just burnt down, right? It's like, well, let's just burn everything, burn it all to the ground, and then we'll start over because I don't see there's no going back, right? So how do we have a healthy forward?

I don't know how that happens. Yeah. I will say for, well, number one, that plantation burning down was a tragedy because that was the largest all gender bathroom that was available in the area. People would come and pee on that thing daily. And yeah, that's a shame. But no, I think that there's a couple competing things that happened for me post-COVID. Number one, my Latin program was killed. just died.

And so I became a U.S. history teacher again. Jokes on them. I'm really good at this. And I'm really knowledgeable about this. So I dove into being better at the work. That being said, I used to, when Manuel and I worked together, I used to say, I'll come 80 if the kids will come 20. Now I'm coming 95 and the kids are coming one.

and like you said, like what would we expect? I mean, look at how they've come up, right? And then we had the hyper focus on tech and no accountability. And I just, you know, existing is graduation. I think that the competing things that are happening is I got better and more clever and I really dialed into what the point of education is. in my mind and the problem is that the system continued to try to revert back to the old days prior to COVID just with new spins on it new skin stretched across it and I mean that quite

literally the person who you're going to love this man while the person who was the VP under the Gates Foundation is now in charge of our ninth grade houses program like the corporation that's guiding schools and that it's the same guy and it's just like oh small learning communities no no they're their high school houses sure um so that's dope uh but that's been done Harry Potter right yeah exactly exactly that's that's not problematic at all speaking of fashion little bit no yeah um but so what I've noticed is that everybody thinks of education as a commodity and so many of us were made to buy into it previously and I don't I reject that wholesale now like I used to chafe against it and now I reject it wholesale and so when people are like we had to you remember

we had to get these kids these 21st century skills and I was asked name them and they couldn't and then they well we need to get these kids ready for jobs and I was always no I need to get them ready to be citizens of a community that values democracy and now Now I just, I dismiss people wholesale. And it's, again, this is commodification of, and it's trickled into the kids in a massive way. The reason that they're using AI is not because they're irrational beings. They have been taught, if you provide this product, I will judge this product and you will move on. And the entire way that I've structured my class now is this is all a process and we will do this process from beginning to end every time.

And you will get better through doing this process. And the reason for this process is that you learn how to decode things for yourself. It is not a commodity. It's not a thing that you can cheat. It is going to the gym every day. It is lifting the weights. It is recording how you're lifting went. It is.

And then moving on. And you will see gains. And the kids want to just sit there on the bench and talk to each other and then say that they lifted what was behind them. And again, we taught them that. That's on us as an institution for so very long because we allowed no child left behind to put their hand up our skirt. Because we allowed race to the top to creep it up our leg. Because we allowed. Because we allowed. And so now I am an island unto myself even more than I used to be.

And I'm not the only one who's right about this, of course. but I noticed that post-COVID right alongside the first-year kids that came back to us flopped. The second year, they were angry. The third year, they were resentful. And this year, they are compliant, which is not the same as buying in. And we institutionally, at least at my site, have traded in compliance for anything. else and we barely get that like it is last year the the graduation kids were thwarted from getting their diplomas the thing that says that we've spent 13 years doing a good job on you in some way

shape or form the thing that like if you don't have that that's an economic death sentence so I understand the commodification reasons but the kids were thwarted from getting their diplomas because they didn't know where their last name was in the alphabet that's what what stopped them from getting that like i was the one having to tell them where they were based it's like well what's your last name well my name's henry yes henry but what's your last name and it took him a minute and then and this was not just one kid who was high and another kid who was emotionally disregulated these were like more than a dozen kids came to me not knowing where their name was in the alphabet to get their diploma that says that we graduated them and it's worth a damn yeah so post-covid

is very, very bleak. I've gotten really good at doing what I do. I used to be very knowledgeable, and now I'm very knowledgeable and purposeful with what I do. And I don't rely on talent. I really, really reinvented things. And it doesn't matter. So not only is it an existential crisis, Manuel, but it's existentialism. Like, it does not matter what I do. I only have to choose, which is liberating, and I wish I drank. So, Ed, did you talk about what it's like post-COVID? I have not yet. The one thing, again, everybody else has covered nearly everything, the lack of curiosity. Yes. The extremity of behaviors is notably worse. They're digital addicts.

Yeah. They are. The extremity you're saying is withdrawal. Yeah. Yeah. Partly, certainly. And the last thing for me is the number of them like this year in particular. And it's partly with that one particularly difficult class.

So maybe this is just anecdotal. But I think it's borne out is the number of them who just honestly to God don't care like at all are just completely disaffected um you know it it used to be that

you know I'd get a kid every other year who I'd wind up you know looking at their record and they're literally failing everything including PE and that's throughout the day not a kid per class yeah yeah and it was every

other year so yeah yeah I have four kids this year who all year have flunked everything and I have contacted their parents and their parents have had various responses to me about oh you know we're going to talk to him and you know I don't know what to do about it have you got any suggestions you know like well try being an engaged parent maybe um hey At least they care enough to ask. Yeah, that's true. And then, you know, of course, there's the ones that I haven't gotten a response from.

You know, and I've got four of them this year. And trying to talk to them, you know, they, one of them, you know, he's fairly affable about it. He said, no, I don't really care. Yeah. And I actually had to have a conversation about, okay, so I'm going to move you over into this corner of the room. And any day you decide that you want to show up and do something, I'm here for you. But if you're not going to do anything, I need you to not get in the way of me helping anybody who does want to do anything. You know, and actually-

I'm pretty sure that's not why you got into teaching. And it's not why I got into teaching. That's not what I want to do. But, you know, um, yeah. And, and that sucks. And it's really frustrating. but that's what I'm that's what I'm seeing more of and there's a dozen different reasons for it like I mean we can we can talk about things in the culture we can talk about like you say the commodification of what we do like it's all there but that's that's that's the end result that I'm seeing happen more often yeah all right so final question with that with everything that we've talked about the highs the lows everything like what got you there, what drives you there, what keeps you there, how it was before, during, and

after. Why haven't you quit yet? Because there is a teacher shortage. We're 750,000 teachers short this year alone and on pace to lose at least another 40 to 70,000 next year. And that number has continued to rise in terms of what we lose every year. So, and I wish to hell that I could have gotten some of my East Coast friends, but given how long we've gone, I want them to sleep. But I'd love to hear from people in the right to work states, although they probably wouldn't be on this podcast. Because, you know, reasons. So why haven't you quit yet? I am. No. And this is my notice. convinced me right now that we said it all out loud oh my god you put it out there like that

i think i'll start go for um to kind of you know open it up for for everybody i i am still where i am because my my path into education or my path in education has not been standard um I taught for one year at the high school level full-time. And then for personal reasons, left California, wound up going up to Washington. And in that time, I wound up leaving education. I couldn't land a full-time teaching job up there. And I was out of education for a decade doing other stuff. and every other job I had was killing me.

You know, I was good at doing other stuff. I was successful, but it was the various and sundry positions that I moved between. I hated it. and what it came down to and what I finally figured out was doing the work in the classroom that has the value and the meaning that it has makes all of the other stuff worth it because I know that what I'm doing is meaningful and the connection that it has and the connection. And the connections that I'm making and the opportunities that I have to be somebody for my students that they need and trying to teach them to be decent human beings and trying to teach them to be citizens and all of that is more meaningful and more fulfilling than anything else I've done. And on the days when it goes right, God is in his heaven. and all is right with the world and no other job ever gave me that so that's for me that's why I'm still here and I cling to that desperately with both hands on the days that

it's rough cool uh tessa how about you why haven't you quit uh I mean it's not a super great answer. The answer is basically because I couldn't escape this career path despite my best efforts. And I don't really know what else I would do. I mean, I've thought about potentially trying to get into curriculum ratings specifically for like really inclusive and comprehensive sex ed and health because that's a passion of mine and I'm pretty pretty good at it pretty good at writing the curriculum pretty good at teaching it um just I don't even know where I would start with that and then the other reason is because they keep screwing up my student loan payments I've been eligible for 120 payments since April of 2024.

And they keep screwing it up. And last time I looked, somehow they figured out that I, they figured I have 110, which is not correct. And I've been trying to fix that for a year. But in order to have that happen, I have to be employed in an eligible position. Otherwise, those payments and everything doesn't matter. So I'm also kind of trapped, as I told, the last person in the Department of Education while I was in tears. saying that I was walking into a not great situation every day because they can't do math. Those are, I mean, those are basically the main two reasons.

I've wanted to walk quite a few times this year, but I have a responsibility to my kid to keep her housed and clothes and fed and everything. And I unfortunately have to kind of stick this out until there's a tangible, tangible thing. I mean, the magical moment of outdoor ed kind of helped a little bit there, but I mean, those are kind of the two big ones. I feel like I could actually look at it.

And I don't know what my answer would be if the student loan wasn't on the table. I genuinely don't know how that will change my path or if it will. But it's actually really hard to have a concrete answer when you don't really have a say in your position and you don't really have a say in your job because of something like that.

Like that really changes your outlook on it. Yeah, definitely. Sorry. Yeah. Aaron, how about you? Why don't you quit? I had a weird moment earlier this week where I should have recognized this earlier,

but I have more years behind me in this career than I do ahead of me. And the math should have connected earlier but um i also don't want to count how many years like i my dad always said run over the plate like you don't count your years and just jog it in yeah oh that i'm still in that frame of mind but um aside from everything going on in the world i i don't know what else i would do this is who i am and this is what i do and there isn't something else that i think i would be better at. I just, I also am at a point where that is my school and this is my district and I'm going to

outlast anybody who needs to go. So I want to, I want to have, I want to have that impact just in my little world and then slightly outside of it. And I sort of look at the overall picture, like this is my service that I am giving for taking up space on this planet, right? This is how I am giving back or, I mean, I do get paid to do it, but this is sort of how, yeah, this is, this is my active service and I'm a cog in this little machine. So there's so much going on right now that I'm taking this opportunity to, with these kids that trust me and they're parents that trust me with them to be a little cog in this overall big huge system that otherwise it's easy to seem like we don't matter as teachers. But when you're with somebody for six hours a

day and you're trusted to be with them, it does matter. So I do think even though things are going to be horrible and awful ahead of, you know, that's coming our way, I do think we have some really good people that are coming up and they're watching us and listening. So So I take that responsibility really seriously. And I want to be there to have that kind of impact on humans that are coming up. Ed, how about you? I already said, man. You mean Manuel?

No, I meant you because I forgot what you said. But now that you said that you said it, you're right. I'll go, I want to let Manuel have the last word because he's going to knock our socks off. I haven't, no pressure. I haven't quit because you don't quit when the other side has the ball. You don't quit fighting fascism when fascism is winning. You don't quit when the terrible, terrible people that are in leadership positions are in leadership positions because if I quit, that's one less voice shouting back. at them and rallying people. You know, during COVID, what I, what I didn't say earlier was that,

you know, we, we also had a whack schedule. But we did what was called, what was it called, Aaron? It was a concerted, protected effort. And the district tried to impose a schedule on us that made no damn sense. We looked at how many of our students had little sibs at other sites. We looked at who would have jobs and whatnot And we said each high school needed to kind of figure it out for themselves And so they gave us this schedule and told all the parents in the district That this will be the schedule while we were still bargaining Like it posted while we were bargaining

And the next day I called the administrator at that time He was actually really decent guy That they burned out and drove near to death like you do but I called them the next day I said just so you know I am going to be emailing everybody this I need you to if if any trouble comes of this you can only get me in trouble because you can name me as the ringleader but that's it and I will gladly be in trouble for it but we're not doing the district schedule here's what we're doing it's better for our kids here's this this and this and he was like all right go for it

he supported it as best he could in his position and my friend had just started at that site and so his like onboarding is the administrator posting like here's what the schedule is going to be and me firing right back in an email going matter of fact no it's not here's what we're going to do all of us who undersign agree with this appreciate your efforts they are not needed we've got this here's the schedule and he was like damien what the hell are you doing and I'm like oh we ain't done yet i did seven of those that year and if if i did that with someone i like like i'm not gonna quit and let someone because if i didn't i don't know that

anybody else could have or would have like i i have the imagination to be able to do that you know and be willing to get into trouble and so you don't quit when there's still good trouble to be made you you don't quit when uh when you you haven't righted the ship yet. So that's why. The other thing is I, you know, since divorced and I have a mortgage. But like I could pay,

I could pay that in other ways too. But like, yeah. No, this is how, this is how I fight. And the fight ain't over. So I ain't going to quit yet. So anyway, that's my blustery way of saying it. Manuel, how about you?

you why haven't you quit yet or why don't you quit right well for for a lot of the reasons that y'all said particularly what erin said about this being service i i've always viewed teaching as as an act of service uh as an investment in my community in um the next generation in our nation and in the promise of democracy and all those things um but honestly the the immediate answer is just i really love it like i really enjoy it despite all the challenges like i really really love interacting with young people. I really love the experiences that we forged together. I've got so many great memories and, you know, times continue to change. I remember students graduating in the midst of the war in Iraq and enlisting and going out to who knows where.

And I remember taking kids to the auditorium when Obama was inaugurated and all the, this is how excited all the kids on our campus were. And, you know, I remember the quiet of the day after the election in 2016, and when Trump got down there, and I remember a kid, a neurodiverse a kid raising his hand and just like asking, Rustin, is my mom, is my grandma going to get deported? Because she's not a citizen. And it's just like, you know, just like, why, how do we land here? And then, of course, the pandemic and now the fires. And throughout all of that, through all the generations, I've just seen that young people really just want to know that things are going to be okay. They really just want to live, um, uh, healthy, fruitful life.

and just be able to just be who they are. And I just really believe in that. And I really love being a part of that. And I really love knowing that I am having some kind of impact, even, you know, as I think about the teachers that I've had in the past, the good ones and the not so good ones, I remember how they made me feel. And I just know that, you know, they might not remember these lessons. And, of course, AI is a challenge. And, of course, just all the things. But, like, they leave my room knowing that I care.

And they certainly feel a bit of joy. And they bring me a lot of joy and in a world that is so full of despair, like the young people still find a way of giving me hope because like, you know, even the kid I think isn't paying attention to nothing, they'll say something that's so advanced. Like, I didn't know anything about that until college and you saw a TikTok video and now you are, you know, so it's just, I still see signs for better tomorrow for sure. And I really love the profession. And then practically, I, of course, have a mortgage to pay.

I do enjoy the protections that we have. And I do enjoy the time off that we get so I could travel and see family and the pension. The pension's something nice to look forward to. I don't want to leave at this point. And I definitely don't want to be, you know, consulting or doing something working with adults because adults are trash. So I'll stay in the classroom. So, yeah. Cool.

All right. I knew it. Thank you. Thank you all, number one, for being here. We're going to go round the horn, and I think we should go level upward. I want to hear anybody recommending something to read, listen to, or watch, and also feel free to plug anything that you're a part of. So I'll go first, and then Ed, and then we'll go Aaron, Tessa, and Manuel. Um, so I'm going to recommend people pick up the young person's illustrated guide to American fascism, uh, by Sue Coe and Stephen F. Eisenman. Um, I think I've recommended this before, but, uh, it's a graphic novel, uh, and it's, it's near and dear to my heart in terms of the subject matter. So, all right. Ed, how about you? Um, I'm going to, I'm going to go a little bit into the weeds. And I'm going to recommend the novel Ilium, a novel of Troy by Dan Simmons.

it's a science fiction novel and the reason it's on my mind is because earlier on in the evening talking about you know the trends that we're moving in the direction things appear to be moving in there's a moment in the novel where one character says to two other characters pre-literate meet post-literate

because she's the one person in the conversation who knows how to read and she's talking to Odysseus yes, that Odysseus on one side and a denizen of the 31st century on the other side and neither of them can read so I thought of that moment it is a mindbender

of a novel well worth the read Iliam by Dan Simmons a novel of Troy. Nice. Aaron, how about you? Mine is because it was my current obsession for about six months, and I tortured my family with it, and you've all probably seen it. I watched, and then I re-watched Mad Men.

So Mad Men, this was my second time watching the entire series all the way through. But there was a companion book called Mad Men Carousel. and it had every episode. So I would read about the episode and then I would watch it and then it had all these notes on it, everything from the music and why that music was chosen.

So this was just the last six months of my life. I just was, I watched so much of it that I would dream madmen. Like I would be in an episode. So even though people have watched it, I recommend rewatching it along with the book and there's so many little nuances that you will pick up. I loved it visually the first time.

And then the second time, it's just all of this social, you know, connotation and political, everything just, I just ended it. So that's why I have to say that one. Nice. All right, cool. Tessa, how about you? I'm going to go with the deranged thing right now. I've been just back on my mindless, wanting to feel joy media kick

and picked up a graphic novel that is absolutely nuts, but I highly recommend it, called Dan the Dan. It is one person believes in aliens, one person believes in ghosts. they both think the other one is full of shit both are real and then the male character gets cursed by said demon ghost

and they have to use the power of friendship to get his dick and balls back it's great I like it it's fantastic like Care Bears meets animated the Osirous myth yeah oh my god it's great

it's I highly recommend the graphic novel because the artist is phenomenal he does a really great job with expressions and just it's hysterical but honestly the animation is great as well and it's really great because you'll go from like losing your mind laughing really hard

to suddenly having the emotional floor ripped out from under you and you'll be sobbing and then back to laughing hysterically so 10 out of 10. Nice. All right. Am I well?

How about you? Sure. I mean given where I teach and given what happened to us this year I'd certainly have to recommend And Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler graduated from our school. Parable of the Sower, for anybody not familiar, was written. She wrote it in 1993 about, and she wrote it about a dystopian future of the 2020s. And in the year 2025 in that book, she writes about these

fires ravaging her neighborhood, her town, which is Altadina, where, of course, the eating fire ravaged us this year. And she writes about a future where we've just toasted the earth and where, you know, folks are so afraid of each other that they're living behind these gated communities and there's all kinds of substance abuse, all kinds of unhoused folks out there. There's a leader rising, a president who's promising to take the nation back to its glorious past. And it's just like, it's like she, it's like, I mean, it's just, it's mind-boggling how accurate or just thematically how similar it is to the world today. In any case, in it. you know the main protagonist is i'm trying to survive and um one of the things she learns is

that um there's their strength in diversity their strength in working from folks of different backgrounds of different um experiences and um bonding together across their differences to um to to fight for a better tomorrow so it's just perfect for these times it is depressing as hell but as are these times um so yeah parable of the sewer by uh octavia butler excellent very cool well cool um does anybody want to be found anywhere uh any social media tags any projects that you're part of that you want people to know about uh that kind of thing aaron shaking her head tessa i don't have anything special about me so there's no there's nobody looking for me anywhere you are all the special things some of us have to just externalize

hours so that people think we have value yeah we need we need external validation desperately. Desperately. All right. So Aaron and Tessa are a no. Yeah, I'm not interesting on social media, but I do have a podcast about education, particularly about education and educational justice and all the things happening in terms of these right-wing attacks on our education system.

So it's kind of hard to find, though, because the name of it is all of the above, and there are plenty of shows out there named all of the above of various genres. But sometimes it pops up first, if somebody types in all of the above. of the above on Apple Podcasts or all of the above education maybe or just my name Manuel Rustin and it'll pop up but other than that yeah um that's it cool and ed we can be found at we can be found online at woba woba woba woba dot geekhistory time dot com that's where our archive is that we've i think mentioned a couple of times uh this episode talking about back during lockdown we can also be found on the apple podcast app on the uh what's um amazon podcast app and on

spotify uh wherever it is that you have found us please take a moment to give us and our wonderfully articulate charismatic guests uh the five-star review that you know they deserve if not us and where can you be found sir uh first friday of every month month, you can go down to the Comedy Spot in Sacramento. You should probably go to saccommodyspot.com and go to their calendar section so you can buy your tickets in advance. Capital Punishment is on the first Friday of every month at 9 p.m. at the comedy spot. We've been there for more than a year. By the time this will have released, to be honest, school might have started again. But also, we now have a new host, Emily sued. And we are in our

10th year. So just all kinds of amazing all the way around. Spin that wheel. Come watch us punn the night away. So satcommodyspot.com. Capital punishment capital with an O. So yeah, that's where you can find me. Well, I got to say for all of us here, thank you all so much for spending your evenings with us. Now you can see why I don't do anybody on any other coast. Manuel, Aaron, and Tessa, it's been a, I don't want to exactly say it was a joy because we talked about some really awful, horrible things, but like it has been very fulfilling. And I'm incredibly grateful for all of you opening up to us. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. So for a geek history of time, I'm Damien Harmony. And I'm at Blaylock. And until next time, don't turn anything in in pencil.