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Thanks. My late mom always used to muse that I so relished the combat I found among the liberals in my profession. I was particularly good at pushing their buttons. As an old mentor of mine in the army once said: Why break their legs when you can mess with their minds? I've always tried to honor that advice.

Remember when the militia movement was so big back in the 90's? I was sitting in the teachers lunchroom once and a particularly snotty young female math teacher called out to me across the room in a loud voice: Hey Mr____! Are you in one of those militia groups? And the whole room went dead quiet. I promptly chimed back at the same level of volume or a bit more: Nope! But it's not because I disagree with their goals. It's just that they can't teach me anything NEW! As she fled the room screaming the rest of us calmly went back to our lunch, I just smirked.

I have often thought a much better reply would have been: What? I wouldn't hang out with THAT bunch of liberals! But I wasn't thinking that critically that day. 'Sides, I got the reaction I was after, anyway!

I've been teaching for over 20 years now. The first 3 years is the probationary period where they can fire you on a whim. I was real careful for those years. I flew very low under the radar. A turtle, not a tiger. After that, for the next 7 years until I got tenure, I was still acting like a guerilla behind the lines. Recently since I hit the 20s, I've been more direct and out in the open. I'm a member of the teacher's union and they ALL hate me over there, but they will defend me to the death because there's a bunch of us conservatives in the system and they can't afford to lose anybody.

You know, in 20+ years I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of kids who have displayed blatant racial hatred towards me. Teachers? Thats a different story! The hate rolls off them in waves. So continuous it's intensity can make me nauseous sometimes. For those kinds of haters, I try and kill 'em with kindness and smiles. I rise above it. That's all I can do, except to show it to the kids once in awhile.

During the 2008 election I did an experiment with my AP kids and another AP teacher who's actually more conservative than I am! Really. So we went out and got some campaign buttons for McCain/Palin and had the kids wear them to their other classes. Those kids came back shaken and fearful. They were spat upon (by their own best friends!), threatened and thrown out of classrooms by teachers who should know better! What a wake up call for the smartest kids in the school.