We're going back into the vault for this one. A while back, I drove about twenty miles from where I live to a park in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee, and sat on bleachers across from a former teacher named Amy Walls. We both have ADHD, so the bleachers were a tactical decision. Kept us from wandering too far.

Amy taught school for ten years. She has a master's degree in education. She left the classroom in January of 2024, and she is not going back.

We talked about education. And for maybe the first time in my life, a Millennial and a Boomer agreed on just about everything. I've had some time to sit with that since we recorded it — and honestly, it's held up. This one's worth a second look.

It’s showtime!

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I walked downstairs to WSIU radio. I was a radio and TV major at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and the man who directed me to there was John Kurtz, the General Manager of WSIU TV and radio.. Mr. Kurtz was also a professor who had just earned his PHD, “Congratulations on your PHD Doctor Kurtz!”

“Thank you, Rickman!”

“Incidentally, I have this pain in my elbow. What can I take for it?”

Doctor Kurtz examined my elbow and gave me his prescription.

“Take two aspirins...and go to hell!"

Then I walked down to the nether region of WSIU radio. That was in 1973. This type of forthright conversation didn’t only take place in college.

I remember when I was in 5th grade, doodling on a piece of paper — instead of writing my assignment — when Mr. Kindle looked up from his blonde wood desk, adjusted his tie, crumpled up a piece of paper, and snapped, “Here’s some more paper! Play baby, PLAY!”

I can’t imagine any of this happening today. Nope, that would be politically incorrect.

Amy Walls taught for ten years across three states. Master's degree. Got in for all the right reasons. Left in January 2024, halfway through year ten, after a third grader threw a table at her and the school couldn't send anyone to help because everyone else was already dealing with something else.

She applied to nearly a hundred jobs after leaving. Got two interviews. One of them was Chick-fil-A. She took it — and told me it's the first time in years she's felt appreciated at work.

Editor's note: Since we recorded this, Amy has landed on her feet in a big way — she's now the Coordinator of Educational Services at WTCI PBS right here in Chattanooga. Couldn't have happened to a better person. The kids are lucky to have her.

I came into this conversation expecting we'd find at least a few things to disagree on. That's the point of the show, right? The Boomer and the younger generation find the gap, talk across it, see if they can get anywhere.

Amy and I found the gap. We just couldn't figure out where to stand in it because we kept agreeing.

She doesn't blame my generation and I sure don't blame hers. We both think the kids coming out of COVID are dealing with something nobody has a clean answer for yet who spent their earliest years without socialization and learning where the boundaries of a room are, and then showing up to kindergarten having never really left their house.

The system is run by people who make decisions, and those decisions get made because of who shows up to vote and what policies get written and which budgets get approved. The accountability is so spread out that nobody ends up holding it.

Teaching is a thankless job. If you know a teacher, give ‘em a thumbs up or a tip (because they sure aren’t making as much as they should).