Tacks, Man

It's that time of year, folks. I was watching the news the other night, when the anchor woman went to commercial with a teaser about the tacks man. I remember that it's tacks time, the time of year when we teachers have to watch out.

This time of year, tacks are being filed. That makes them very sharp. And students, always in the mood for a poorly thought through practical joke, are well-aware of the time honored, guffaw-inducing prank of putting tacks on a teacher's chair. That's bad enough at any time of year, but, when the tacks are filed, it hurts even worse.

It has gotten so bad, apparently, that the government is stepping in to help beleagured teachers. The president and congress seem to favor cutting the tacks. This, of course, in an effort to lessen the effect of filing them, I imagine. It sounds like a good idea to me.

And, even better news, the presidential candidates are all contemplating making the cuts permanent. This would really help. If we permanently kept tacks cut, teachers would never suffer the ignominy of having a filed (or unfiled) tack jabbed into their posterior. And, we could always use push pins for our bulletin boards.