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its vision of teachers as an underpaid and overworked group of heros and uber liberals. Phooey.

I've been a teacher for 20 years, the last 15 in an inner city high school in the 4th largest school district in the nation. Got news: We ARE underpaid and overworked! We're just not all liberals.

Last year at my school, a teacher was jumped outside his classroom for the sin of confiscating an iPod from a student. That kid (female) promptly slapped the teacher on the spot. He had her taken via security to the office where district policy mandates an arrest. But no, our spineless uber liberal principal sent her onto outdoor suspension for ten days of free vacation. So that afternoon she came back with her quasi family of sorts. Crackhead mom, half sister by another father and half brother by yet another dad who happened to be a former golden gloves boxer. The teacher in question is a gentle math guy (sheep) and was tutoring kids for the state mandated test called the FCAT on his own time. After school he taught and reviewed for a couple of hours and was locking up when they struck. No security in the building & no cameras working. He was blindsided and never had a chance against the group. They broke his jaw in 3 places. He never returned to the school after his stay in the hospital. They got the initial kid and had warrants out for the rest but it's a dangerous job we do in the inner city and certainly worth far more than we're paid.

The next day (I had been out with the flu) when I got back to school all my kids promptly asked me the following:

Hey Mr._____! Are you now scared to come to work?

I laughed gently and replied thusly: "Look, son. I'm too young to die and too old to take an A$$ Whippin'...... So.....I'm just gonna KILL YA. Their eyes grew to the size of saucers and one of my football players laughed and said: I TOLD 'em you'd say that sir. You are da BOMB!

High praise that was in their language. When I was first recruited from a different inner city high school a few years before to teach Psychology and AP American Government, my students all called their buddies at the news school and said: This guy is an awesome teacher. He was social studies Teacher of the Year at our school. He's great. Ex Army, Ex- Cop, very cool. But don't mess with him cuz he'll KILL you dead. Ask to see his photo album.

They did too, first thing. I showed 'em my active duty and reserve photos and they pretty much decided not to test me. One guy did that year and I had to use some of my Aikido, but it was a halfhearted attempt and not a committed attack, so it was pretty easy. I knew I'd succeeded at the end of that year when I overheard a whispered conversation by my kids at the rear of the class (they all think we're blind and deaf at our "teacher desk").

The conversation was about teachers they'd like to punch, usually because they're tough both academically and discipline wise. I heard the names of all my friends come up and then MY name popped up and there was a shocked hush as my ears perked up. A fervent whisper: "You'd punch Mr. ______?" The reply was priceless: "I said I'd LIKE to, but I'd never do it cuz that psycho would kill me without a moment's hesitation. As in D.O.A.

Had I stumbled across the attack on the math teacher, I probably would have taken somebody out for good. No time to be sweet and gentle with that crew and I'd have done to them what they did to him: A blindside attack.

I tell the kids that I'm a conservative Republican and a Christian. I tell them my philosophy on education, too:

It's CRITICAL to distinguish between the LIBERALISM of the continuing historical revisionism in education to support liberal causes with reality. I DO this in this manner:

Every school year I give the following lecture.

Everything in life and history consists of three categories: Subjects, Issues and Agendas.

Everything is a subject.

Discussing ALL sides and permutations of a subject creates an ISSUE, which can be debated in honest and valid fashion.

Discussing ONE side of a subject creates an AGENDA and that is sheer manipulation to get you to act in a certain manner at a certain time ... usually this means a vote in the future. The public school system has the same message on a variety of subjects from Kindergarten thru senior high school and it never varies.

I'll prove it. Every student in this room is a senior.

#1 Have ANY of you in the past 12 years of school heard any educator, administrator or counselor say anything POSITIVE about firearms? Show your hands. Okay, none. Fact is, firearms are an Olympic sport and a part of the historical fabric of the nation. Regardless of what you think of the 2nd Amendment (and the USSC is about to rule on that for the first time in 70 years) there is a part of the Constitution that is dedicated to guns. Read the writings of the Founding Fathers and you may discover a whole bunch of absolute gun nuts! Or maybe not so "nuts."

#2 Have ANY of you in the past 12 years heard any educator, administrator or counselor say anything NEGATIVE about the United Nations? Show your hands. Okay, ZERO again. In fact we have whole events dedicated to the wonders of humanitarian love in the UN. The reality is that the UN is made up of a lot of nations that hold a lot of animosity to the USA. If they got the chance they'd happily eradicate us from the planet. IF.

This stuff is all on my FR Home page plus a reading list I recommend. Some of that list I have my kids read for extra credit, if they want. If they do a report, they get grades to help boost their gpa.

I take a lot of sick days. Most times I'm really sick at the start of the school year. When you interact with kids, they tend to be sick a lot and teachers catch it from the kids. THIS year I've already taken all my sick days legitimately and more since my wife was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and had a lumpectomy and now is halfway thru chemotherapy and other meds. Later there will be radiation and another year of less corrosive meds but that will still means trips to the doctors.

My friends at school including the principal and his staff have been wonderful. If I need to take my wife to the Doc and I have to leave school early, a teacher steps up and watches my kids on his or her planning period and the principal lets me go early without docking my pay. Still, at the start of chemo, it was bad and I had to take days off to be with her, help her ride out the nausea. I've gone thru all my paid leave and the year is just barely half done. I'm already into days without pay.

Paperwork? Over the top and buried in pure BS. You wouldn't believe the files, contacts, conferences & assessments and crap I have to accomplish on top of keeping papers graded (try grading 400 papers each and every week someday) and imaginations engaged with innovative techniques.

For years we had great insurance but this year they renegotiated and now we're getting screwed just like the rest of the nation. Thank God I have the VA, too.

My pay, really, is in the kids I do reach. The ones who stay in touch. I had one kid about ten years ago. He was one I'd have sworn would be dead in a year from gangs or drugs. He dropped from sight as soon as he graduated. I didn't hear about him for a couple of years until he strides into my classroom one sunny day. He was wearing his uniform. He was a Navy SEAL and he told me, that I'd done it. I'd been his motivation and his rock. Because I'd believed in him he'd believed in himself and he went all the way. He shook my hand and walked out again and I never saw or heard from him again. That was about 1999.

20 years in and for full retirement I need 35 years. I'm not going to make it. I'm just not. I'm on the edge of burn out now. I've already been through a clinical depression successfully treated by the VA. But depression is common in teachers. So, I write for therapy and now for profit. I have a real literary agent and some properties on the desks of some serious Hollywood players, including two series pilots. If those sell, I'll retire instantly. I could make my full retirement in a single season for just one but two? Plus the seven screenplays I have floating around? THAT would be "Da BOMB" as the kids say.