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Linda Papanicolaou

Staff Development Day

The kids have all been given the day off and the teachers herded into the high school auditorium to hear a four-hour lecture on preparing our students for careers in the outsourced global economy. The speaker is a futurologist whose Powerpoint slides are full of graphs and anecdotes culled from a Tom Friedman book.

One hour in, I've counted and mapped the ceiling lights, studied all the heads nodding in the seats in front of me. A teacher on my right has brought her knitting.

click of needles
the EXIT signs
glowing green