Freddogg Off The Chain

My first teaching job was at a Junior High in 1970. I’ll always remember sitting down to lunch in the faculty cafeteria. I remember being smart, full of ideas and observations, and intellectual curiosity. I remember being alone, because no one cared about any of that bullshit. I was stunned and disappointed and realized I had landed in the wrong place.

Then there was the first after school faculty meeting which was even more depressing, as people talked about innane stuff unrelated to intellect and ideas. It was then I vowed never to attend anymore of those meetings. I never believed in the word mandatory or captive audience. I rolled my career to the brink of termination many times by refusing to show up at meetings that did little else but justify the careers of people who didn’t teach inside a classroom.

I survived 35 years in the box thinking outside the box which is why I never got out of the box. Free spirits and original thinkers rarely rise up the organizational ladder and that goes for running the country as well. George W Bush I rest my case. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and I rest my case.

I was conscious when Adelie Stevenson ran for President against General Dwight D. Eisenhower and lost. The knock on Stevenson was he was an intellectual and I asked my grandmother what that meant and she said, ”a person who knows too much, dumb ass.” I was a kid in the single digits and realized that knowing too much disqualified a person from being President or Principal or anyone else in the public sector.

Hillary Clinton recently refuted claims that she used to be ugly saying back in high school she was a cutie. ( In a “What’s up Doc”? sort of way)

I taught a class in 1976 at a private school trying to push home the anthropological point that Ugly was not a reality but a personal evaluation and that nature did not recognize ugly.

Two young and beautiful looking athletic black men from Yeadon, Pa, who were great kids and never said a discouraging word to anyone, rose to their feet and said, ”Coach, your education has clouded your vision. We all know ugly when we see it and so do you. Dam man, what is wrong with Coach Fred?”

They were of course right. I also used to believe that there were no dumb people, I was certain we were all pretty much the same and that intellect was based on opportunity and experience.

Now I understand that some people are just functionally DUMB. They think dumb and say dumb shit and they may be rich but they still are dumb and Hillary can never claim cute but she’s not ugly either.

What do it all mean? Beats my dumb ugly ass!

Peace Freddogg