First of all, thank you for joining me. 

For twenty-five years I worked in a system designed to destroy students, teachers, and the institution of public schooling. Alternately I growled or ground my teeth to nubs. I joined with colleagues to complain and resist. We led a strike. Through all of it, we had to moderate our criticism for fear of reprisal and concern for our careers. But truth muted is not truth at all.

Now I'm retired and I can say what I really think. I thought retirement was going to mean golf and day drinking my way through old movies in the afternoons. Instead, as soon as I was out of the classroom I couldn't stop thinking about what I'd been through--what we all go through as classroom teachers and education professionals. And now I had the time, so I started to write about it. 

First was a book. Answer Key: A Teacher’s Completely Unofficial, Fiercely Unauthorized Handbook and Survival Guide is nearly finished, and it has become obvious to me that I'm not yet finished in education. I want to be part of an ongoing conversation about schools and schooling, what's wrong with it and what can be done about it. Hence this blog. The day drinking will have to wait. 

Here on the Answer Key blog, I'll share my own insights and some of the obstacles I faced and solutions that I came up with over the course of my career. More than that, though, I really want to hear from you. Whether you are a brand new teacher looking for answers (for the first time) or a veteran with answers of your own, I want to hear about what you're dealing with and how you are thinking about it. We especially welcome all of you who are working right now to serve your students--in the face of absurd and incessant antagonism--but who feel constrained from telling your truth.

I am committed to making this a place where you can finally be heard and where your experience is valued and validated. It must become a place where you can safely say what we all know to be true, a place where, just maybe, we can devise ways to push back and cultivate strategies for resistance.  Welcome to Answer Key.

My name is Jeff Waid. Before retiring in January, I taught English and drama for over twenty-five years in the Los Angeles Unified School District. I have a Master’s in Education and was a National Board Certified Teacher from 2002-2012. 

I’ve also served as a mentor teacher, a department chair, a union rep, and I’ve taught prospective teachers at California State University at Los Angeles Charter College of Education as a part-time faculty member. 

Before that, I did a series of sub jobs at some pretty posh private schools in L.A. and way before that, I even did a couple of summers at an arts camp back east. Along the way I went through a boatload of “how to teach” classes and books and articles and videos and professional developments. 

What I didn’t find in any of them was the truth about what my colleagues and I were experiencing in our classrooms and in our schools. This blog is about that truth and, I hope, yours.