In Minnesota our special reading law called The Read Act. The Read Act makes certain kinds of reading instruction mandatory and other kinds illegal. I will confess that during the last two years at Minnesota State University, Mankato, I’ve been teaching illegal reading instruction. Every day I expect masked READ agents to kick down my door, handcuff me, and drag me off to a LETRS training facility somewhere in Wyoming or Texas.

Prince of Peace. How’s that working out for you? How’s that peace thing going? I have to be honest, I don’t see a lot of peace coming out of my Jesus-loving MAGA friends. I see anger, hatred, retribution, violence, and lies.

Peace on earth, goodwill toward men (and women and children and animal life and our planet). How’s that goodwill working out for you? Are you feeling it? Is your will good? Or is it selfish? Did I misread Luke? Did the angel say, “Selfish will to all”?

I don’t see a lot of goodwill emanating from the Jesus-loving MAGA folks. I see greed, selfishness, violence, indifference, entitlement. I’m sorry. That’s what I’m seeing. And now I see war. And I see killing. And I see people being beat up and locked up. The Christian bible has policies about these sorts of things.

Effective teachers are reflective teachers (Sternberg & Williams, 2010; Zeichner & Liston, 2010). They think about what they’re doing, what they did, and what they’re going to do. There are two levels of reflection: surface level and deep meaning. Both are necessary. But one without the other is not sufficient.