Thank you, Pat, and 1day. I appreciate your empathy.

I, too, have known a more understanding side of Candybear, and I am sure that we will all see that side again. I am looking forward to it.

And yes, 1 day, the salaries that teachers make are pitiful. (The salaries for newspaper journalists also are pitiful, so no wonder Candy is so cross, since she combines work in both professions.) Also pitiful, if not stark raving mad, is the philosophy that teachers are solely responsible for a child's learning, when so many factors in the home affect that. We have elementary schoolchildren here who must be their parents' translators in all dealings with the outside world. This is a heavy burden for an 8-year-old! Or the child may go home and have to help with a large family of smaller children. There is no time for homework in such a family. Or students arrive hungry, because of familial poverty. Research shows that learning ability is severely affected in children with nutritional deficiencies. Yet, the teacher is supposed to compensate for all this! Well, I am hijacking my own thread. But since it started out as a blog on various thoughts, maybe that's okay.