What Keeps Me Coming Back Into Hell
A Summer School Anecdote, Summer School in Lost Angeles by Lucas J. Mather
Here’s a vulnerable anecdote from hell, LAUSD, Lost Angeles, Democrat-Central-Youth-Planning-Commissar. A summer college class for Lost Angeles high school students, summer.
I say LALSD under my breath in class, and every single kid says it for the rest of the summer. They are highly impressionable . That’s why most of them come out as Democrats—by design . The Dems take every advantage of their monopoly of tax money in Education to mold them the way they want them to be—Democrats. I’m fighting back for their sake, and for ours. I am completing surrounded and deep behind the lines. But apparently I’m also surrounded by a host of angels, cuz I’m still here. And they are writing down what I tell em, as if was the end of the Book of Eli.
As I am finishing up grading for this summer class, I’m thinking of our summer class and all the feelings I had about being on a high school campus in LA as a professor . I think about each kid . The room we were in. The routine we had. I haven’t seen them since before I went to South Carolina. And what stands out to me was the connection we had. They were sick of school and antsy, but they were better in many ways than most college students I’ve ever had. They bury probably most of the Pepperdine kids I had there in 40+ classes over 11 years . They were hungry , and scared about life. I asked if they were going to enjoy the break from class by my leaving for SC. And then the end . And this response they had took me by surprise. All of them, all of them said no . I said what do you mean. They said they liked the class and didn’t want it to end. The rest of summer was going to be “boring”, is the word that disparate parts of the classroom kept saying. I crinkled my brow , thought they might be being sarcastic. They weren’t, they were all serious . 35 kids. I felt bad about leaving them. So i mentioned they could read , continue their education . They said it wouldn’t be the same if I wasn’t there.
Talk about a knife through the heart. I did not expect that.
I wish I wasn’t so damned sentimental . I could’ve just told them all to go to hell. Rip the Band Aid off. But , I sat there quietly taking it in , all vulnerable and gushy.
You think of LA as this tough, disgusting place. And much of it is. But even in the worst parts, there are these sunrises. The bright rays of hope and pain and joy and dread and fear and laughter , and it stinks. You walk into the boys bathroom and it stinks, and you’re looking at yourself in the mirror and then at the gang signs carved into the porcelain , and it stinks in there. And it’s hot. And you can hear the traffic. And it’s the looks on their faces, most of them browner than mine . Their young faces. Their eyes, wet from laughter, probing yours to see if you’re the real deal. It’s that look of trust, like, I’ve never heard that before. And you seem totally legit . It’s that “what the hell face” they make, not at me, but at LA, at what it’s become out there. It’s that look in their faces when you can tell they’re considering they may have some hope beyond the cooped up, unnaturally walled boundaries these Progressives have laid out for them with fake glistening gold colors. It’s that . That’s what keeps me coming back into hell. And it’s me allowing myself to be surprised once again that God has not , will not let us Californians go.
Copyright Lucas J. Mather, 2018
All Rights Reserved
Originally posted to Facebook Friday 27 July 2018 at 4:57 pm (photo of my quiz, and comment) and 5:34 pm respectively.
Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D., is the producer and host of the #1 rated podcast in the category of Government and Spiritual Formation in the entire world, The Republican Professor podcast.
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