Okay, I lied.

So, I'm back. Enough people convinced me that I shouldn't stop blogging, so here I am. And I'm pissed.

Why do people keep listening to "ed reformers" like Michelle Rhee still? Here's a testimony to her wonderful work in Washington from The New York Times. Great job there, Ms. Rhee. We should all follow your example. Schools continue to decline as money gets siphoned away from education. Yesterday, at dinner with my family and my mother and her significant other, named Art, we had a discussion about education, which stemmed from having just watched the New Jersey Ballet perform The Nutcracker.

Art, who is CEO of a small company outside of New York City, said what a wonderful thing it is that we expose our daughter to so many different arts and experiences and asked if she gets something like that at school. She does. He said wouldn't it be great if kids could take a survey of classes that came from all fields -- shop, home ec, dance, studio art, etc. -- so they could find what they really enjoy and choose something they really want to do before they got to college? We all agreed. Many of us had had some experience like that in school when we were back in middle and high school, but those days are gone.

Public schools, before high school, barely have foreign language programs. Non-academic programs are constantly cut. Why? Because we don't value anything in education other than getting out of it. My students even say to me: "I just have to pass so I can graduate." Then what? Okay, you squeak by and pass. You get into a mediocre college because everyone has told you you HAVE to go to college -- another basic lie -- and then what do you do there? Just get through those four years, passing, in order to get out and get a job? Doing what? What are you doing with your life?

WHY ARE WE TEACHING OUR YOUTH TO JUST PUNCH A TIMECARD AND HATE THEIR JOBS? Well, you have to have a job that makes a lot of money because you need a lot of money to enjoy life. Really? Although I think I should earn more than I do, let me make this clear: I have a good life. I have a house, two cars, a dog, a cat, a fish, an amazing daughter that I send to private school (because of what I have mentioned about public schools), and a wonderful wife. My wife and I work hard to make a life we like, but we enjoy the work we do.

Sure, I could have gone into a field where I could work 80 hours a week making a six to seven figure salary. I'm smart and could probably have pulled down a job like that, but I would HATE MY LIFE. I enjoy having time to spend with m y daughter. I enjoy working with students, even the ones that piss me off sometimes. If I just had to go to an office every day and sit at a desk to crunch numbers in order to earn a paycheck, I would be unhappy. Don't we all want to be happy? Isn't that important? Remember, "the best things in life are free."

And speaking of my going to The Nutcracker yesterday, what the hell has happened to our society? People were talking throughout the performance even though I asked them to stop. A man was playing "Angry Birds" on his iPhone the WHOLE TIME while sitting next to his children, and then took them out before the performance was over. People were constantly getting up and walking out and then walking back in during the whole thing. I couldn't believe the extend of the rudeness and selfishness of the entire audience! There were over twenty dancers working their hardest to entertain the audience with a holiday classic and people couldn't give a damn to sit down, shut up, and pay attention. AND THE AUDIENCE PAID MONEY FOR IT!

My advice to you: if you don't like sitting quietly during a performance and having good manners in a theater, DON'T GO. Stay home, rent the film version, and talk all you want. Stay the hell away from the theater so my family and others like us can enjoy live performance. You want to pay a lot of money to have a conversation with your friends about taking a cruise up the Hudson (yes, that's what five old ladies behind me were talking about during the beginning of the first act) then go to an expensive restaurant and talk.

Okay, I've returned with enough hatred for humanity for today. I need to go teach a class. :)