SPRING TRAINING

It's called "Adult Education," however, to the outside observer it might as well be kindergarten—you know, that special time when your teacher handed out those small cartons of milk and graham crackers as you sat quietly on your little rug right before nap time. Here's a news flash to anyone visiting my blog as a first timer: these are "groan" men (no spelling error here), G-R-O-A-N, groan men taking up space in my classroom.

One particular man-child complained that I wasn't teaching him; I had just given him his TABE results (Test of Adult Basic Education) and he was quick to say, "You cheated me out of my time."

"Yeah," I said, "I guess it's my fault you showed up late." Then, believe it or not, he accused me of "not caring," in which I pointed out, "Well you obviously don't."

Spring is finally here. Once the warmer weather arrives some of my students will lose interest in school (if they haven't already). They'll skip class for a quick game of basketball, volleyball, horseshoes, and shuffleboard. I'll see them from my classroom window—easy marks for "Out of Place" tickets. I'll pick one from the crowd and lace him up—“You got to start somewhere,” I’ll tell him when he asks why the others didn’t receive tickets. So the rest will feel lucky and will forget about my negative influence on them. They’ll sit back and enjoy the air conditioning—that is, as soon as summer arrives.

Technically speaking, the attached video was taken on the last day of winter. Refreshing, isn't it? Some dogs are easier to train than others.