‎"I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth---and truth rewarded me."
~Simone de Beauvoir

"You want to arm me? Good. Arm me with a school psychologist who has time to do more than test and sit in meetings about testing. 

Arm me with enough counselors so we can build skills to prevent violence, have meaningful discussions with students about their future & not merely frantically adjust student schedules like a Jenga game...

Arm me with social workers who can thoughtfully attend to a student's & her family's needs so I. Can. Teach.

Arm me with enough school nurses so that they are accessible to every child and can work as a team with me rather than operate their offices as de facto urgent care centers.

Arm me with more days on the calendar for teaching & learning and fewer days for standardized testing.

Arm me with class sizes that allow my colleagues and I to know both our students and their families well.

Arm my colleagues & I with the time it takes to improve together & the time it takes to give great feedback to students about their work & progress.

Until you arm me to the hilt with what it will take to meet the needs of an increasingly vulnerable student population, I respectfully request you keep your opinions on schools and our safety to yourself NRA. Knock it off.

-Mary Cathryn Ricker, President of the St. Paul Federation of Teachers.

“There are some people who always seem angry and continuously look for conflict. Walk away; the battle they are fighting isn’t with you, it is with themselves.”

“When you run into someone who is disagreeable to others, you may be sure he is uncomfortable with himself; the amount of pain we inflict upon others is directly proportional to the amount we feel within us.” — Sidney J. Harris

All things are subject to interpretation; whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.  --Friedrich Nietzsche

‎"The opinion which other people have of you is their problem, not yours." - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

‎"On this day of celebrations, I believe Martin Luther King Jr. would have 
said to President Barack Obama, 'Continue. Be loving and be strong. Be fierce and be kind. And don't give in and don't give up.'" -- Maya Angelou

‎"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." -Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Framers did NOT intend to protect the individual's right to mow down
countless citizens in seconds. They never dreamed of such a
possibility. They had just fought a war with a powerful government, and
they were trying to ensure that citizens could arm themselves against an
oppressive military regime.

“Everyone in the world knows that Jesus and His teachings were nonviolent except Christians.” - Gandhi

‎"We cannot use the Old Testament to undo the teachings of Jesus." -Herb Montgomery

If the government were to  outlaw everything but muskets, they would have followed the second amendment (if you believe "militia" includes the common man). . The constitution says nothing about 30 round magazines, so the banning of them will still be legitimate. This does not even include a discussion about how "well regulated" should be defined.

"To teach is to learn twice over"--unknown

Your words are an advertisement for your heart.