I teach in a state where it is required.

Well, I just figured that was understood.

You're right. This is a pointless conversation. Just out of curiosity, do you teach high school students?

You're right. You've pinned me down. I wake up every morning underestimating kids and plotting how I am going to be condescending to them that day. In fact, the joy I get in underestimating them and condescending to them is exactly why I have spent the last 27 years teaching them. Here's the most delicious irony: …

Thank you for working with people who need your skills. Honestly, the students are usually kind of thankful — it's just the media and the rest of the American public who hate us!

Believe me, I am not making any kind of suggestion that attempting to educate on a wide variety of issues is not worthwhile. I have been a secondary school teacher for more than two decades. It's kind of what I do all day long.

Oh, yes I agree and I understand. Sadly, unless there's a sea change in the kinds of jobs on offer and the way we deal with cyclical poverty, I don't know that many of the kids I teach have much of a chance of landing a job that will ever pay them enough to put money away in an IRA or a 401K. There's probably a lot…

I don't think I said that education should cater to the lowest expectations. I was just pointing out that just because you force kids to take a class in high school that doesn't mean it is going to translate into actually learning or using the skills taught in that course.

Yes, if a course was put together well and taught competently I'm sure it could be helpful. However, I will say that in defense of today's teenagers a lot of them are actually pretty parsimonious. They may be materialistic, but they are also very proud about snagging clothes for $5.00 at TJ Maxx or Ross. Plus, I…

Your goal is certainly laudatory, but putting that kind of course in high school won't necessarily make adults financially literate. Consider the number of adults who don't read or vote, yet they were most likely all taught English and civics in high school.

Just here to verify that high school students tell me this all the time. And yes, they really do believe it.

I get the part about her expenses rising and her tour losing money and yet she got no heads up from the guy, but how is it Rihanna's accountant's fault that she bought a very expensive house and then wound up selling it at a loss? The housing bubble burst and 2009 was one of the worst years.

That's exactly my point. How/why do we hold Benedict Cumberbatch — or any other person — responsible in any way for historical slavery if we are not willing to hold almost everyone else responsible for the privilege they enjoy because of historical slavery? We don't do it because it's impossible.

I am totally on board with your distinction between morality, ethics, and legality. But when it comes to missing the forest for the trees I think one needs to also consider practicality. Let's consider the United States. Since the US was built physically and (more importantly) economically partly on slave labor…

Very well-said. Plus, anyone claiming she was "terrified" is just divorced from reality. They should all be forced to watch the tape again. She did not look one bit terrified. A teensy bit surprised is the most I see.

That is terribly sad! But it also explains how he gets away with no one mentioning that it's a complete rip-off of another artist.

Nah, the real winner of that halftime show was James Brown. Which just proves that he is STILL the Hardest Working Man in Show Business.

I am not sure about that. You probably regularly read more than 300 words per minute and don't even think about it. What I'm writing right now in response to your comment, for example, runs to exactly one hundred words. Most likely you can read it and digest it in about 10 seconds. If this entire paragraph was…

The color varies as you age because there really is no such thing as grey hair. Some hairs turn white and some don't, but no hairs actually turn grey. The color we see on someone's head is a combination of the white hairs and the color/amount of the non-white hairs. It's almost like an optical illusion.

But does the parrot have a side job starring in erotic films for birds? That's the real question!