Welcome to Room 11.  This is the first post of this newly created blog which, I hope, will deal with issues of public education and the greater culture from the perspective of an urban, not urbane, public school teacher.  I have no great insights to share; I'm neither intellectually gifted nor possessed of enough skill or craft to structure even theoretical panaceas for the maladies that trouble us.  That explains, I suppose, why I am a public school teacher.   However, at the minimum, I hope to comment, eruditely and humorously on issues of education, the behavior of education bureaucrats, the myths of learning principles and learning theories and the reason why our public schools are in their present condition. (Hint:  To paraphrase Weber, things are the way they are because the people who run those things like them that way.)  See, I promised...no great insights.