We returned to school on Tuesday of this week, though it seemed that teachers were not ready to teach and the students were certainly not ready to learn. I ended up giving a brief lecture on the presidency of Gerald Ford and taking some time to introduce the construction of the English II State Exam.

For all you fashionistas out there, there have been a couple of new styles amongst the boys of RHS that I thought you might want to be made aware. First off, yesterday I walked into class to find one young man wearing a t-shirt that displayed a number of mugshots. At first I thought they were all mugshots of famous rappers, but upon closer examination I saw that a few other famous African Americans were pictured, including Jesse Jackson. I didn't really know how to feel about this; I suppose I would have respected the shirt if it featured leaders who had been arrested as a result of protest or civil disobedience, but the shirt seemed to instead be celebrating men who had been arrested on rape and gun possession charges. Wonderful.

Another interesting piece of recently recurring fashion at RHS is a sweatshirt with drawings of food stamps and WIC coupons on it. At least two of my students own it. Again: wonderful.

In a similar vein: about two months ago, a couple of students in my seventh period class figured out that I had been rotating through two pairs of khakis for the entire year. They also noticed two weeks later when I had to wear the same pants for four days straight (mixup at the cleaners). This past Thursday, when I wore a new pair of gray khakis that my parents got me for Christmas, one of my students asked, "Ohhh, Mr. E, new pants??" When I answered in the affirmative, the entire class gave me a standing ovation. At least my students get excited about something...