The Birds and the Bees Episode

Gerry: [00:00:00] When you gotta teach sex ed for, for a week or two and then, and, and then like the kids gotta come back and look you in the face after y'all learned all that. No. Bring a stranger in. Make it less awkward. 'cause that person gets to go home to their family. They won't ever gotta see these kids again.

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It also has advice on how to build trust with families, how to manage grading and lesson plans and IEPs and everything in between that they never went over in your teacher prep program. They never taught us. That is available everywhere. Right now for pre-order.[00:01:00] 

Hey, teacher besties. Welcome to How to Survive the Classroom. I am Andrea Fork. 

Gerry: Hey, I'm Jerry Patoka. 

Andrea: And Gerald, you were just telling me before we started that you had a bit of an adventure today because you have a snow day or an impending snow. Is it actually snowing there? 

Gerry: It's not snow. We thought we was gonna get one of them tornadoes and it, it just rained a little bit this morning.

We got some thunder about 10 o'clock. Hey, it didn't do nothing. I'm still waiting to see if we gonna get one of them tornadoes. 

Andrea: I swear that you messaged me earlier today and said you have an impending snow storm and that's why school got canceled. 

Gerry: No, no, just a regular storm. 

Andrea: Oh, okay. Got it, got it, got it, got it.

Gerry: Do we need to go through the weather? Uh, it works. We, there are other 

Andrea: storms. I don't need the Sass because it was 65 degrees here yesterday and then it was in fact snowing this morning where I am so. Was, it was like an actual thing. Like, it's not good. We ter we got like 

Gerry: two hum, two thumps of thunder, like just B and then [00:02:00] nothing.

Andrea: And 

Gerry: then that's it. I know what you call 'em. We call 'em strokes of thunder that don't feel right. 

Andrea: Yeah. Let's call it a stroke of thunder. Yeah. I hate that. Um, what did you do today on your stroke of Thunder Day? 

Gerry: I took a little, uh, during my telework lunch break, uh, my telework lunch break, I went to, uh. I wanted to target and Marvel makes these Marvel Legends action figures, and they banned all kinds.

They bend in ways I don't bend, and I bought one and I'd been seeing all these videos on Instagram of like people posing the figurines and posing posing 'em in ways like Spiderman posing the movie. I love s Spiderman. 

Theme: Gang gang, 

Andrea: for those of you who are just listening, he just unzipped his sweater and revealed his chest, which is a Spider-Man 

Gerry: shirt.

Andrea: That's 

Gerry: true. I'll be forgetting what we doing. Sometimes most people are having to see this with their ears. Correct. But, um, I, I went and, uh, I bought a, uh, a [00:03:00] Spider-Man figurine, and I took it and I've been posing it all Afternoon. I'm, I'm staying, I'm, I'm, I'm at my buddy's house. I'm staying here, house sitting, and I went into a room that doesn't have any furniture in it yet, and they've just been in the windows using the lighting and like Pose and Spiderman.

Andrea: Okay, so you went to Target and got some dolls? 

Gerry: Oh no. Oh, 

Andrea: back. 

Gerry: Okay. Back up. Barbie. I got an Ashton figure. 

Andrea: Okay. Went and got some dolls and then you posed them in this house and you took pictures with like glamor lighting is what I'm hearing. You did glamor shots for dolls. 

Gerry: Yeah, they're, they're tough.

Andrea: That's amazing. All right. You've gotta make sure you share them because that feels 

Gerry: they're tough. 

Andrea: Very important. Yeah, it sounds like, it sounds like something that my five-year-old son would do, honestly. So, 

Gerry: okay. Your 5-year-old son don't got, he don't have a cinematic vision. 

Andrea: You're probably right about that.

Gerry: I do. Marvel gonna hire me after this 

Andrea: uhhuh. I bet. [00:04:00] Yeah. I can't wait for that. Um, and didn't you were saying earlier that you had something you did this weekend? I did nothing 'cause I like was still recovering from the flu pretty much all week. 

Gerry: Uh, yes. I can't remember if I mentioned it on the show or just mentioned you privately, but I started wa Gobi, I started the GLP ones.

Yeah. So I've been exercising stuff and yesterday it was nice. It was before we were supposed to give them tornadoes, so it was nice. And I go on a walk and I'm like, man, I feel good. Like I'm walking really tired and I just keep walking and I go like, I mean, I probably mapped it up to like almost two miles away.

Mile, mile and a half, two miles away. And then I was, I just got tired all at once. I'm like, okay, now I'm tired. And I'm like a 45 minute walk away from my car. Like I, I, I essentially like crossed, uh, this is dia not saying diagonal. This is, what's this one where you go this way, way, vertical. This, not this way.

Yeah. Vertical. [00:05:00] Yep. No, this is horizontal 

Andrea: parallel. No, 

Gerry: this is Horizon. This is vertical 'cause now how you go? This is horizon. I went horizontal. I went perpendicular to NC State's campus the horizontal way, and I went horizontal to NC State's camp. I crossed the whole campus and ended up almost in downtown Raleigh.

I'm like, all right, now I'm tired. And then I see this neighborhood, I'm like, that look cool. I'm gonna go down there. So I go down this neighborhood and I'm like, this was much more than I anticipated, but I thought it was gonna loop me kind of back, and I was gonna be able to go perpendicular to the street I was on and just get back.

I come back out. I had moved the block, I had done like a mile and a half of walking. Oh my gosh. I still, I still was about like 1.3 miles away. From my car and I stopped at Subway and Guy died in Pepsi and just sat there for 30 minutes and collected myself and kept pushing. This is like a two and a half hour deal.

Yeah. I die on [00:06:00] my car. I was at 3,100 steps I got in my car, I was at 15,500 steps. 

Andrea: Oh my gosh. I was waiting for you to say that you Ubered back. Honestly, that's what I, 

Gerry: I was, I did, I checked the price. I was like, I almost spend $8 on this. It was a where, where I checked the Uber and this wasn't even as far as I got.

I got a good bit further where I checked the Uber. It was an eight minute drive. 

Andrea: Oh. To 

Gerry: get back to the, my gosh. And I'm like, yo, and I see the, the clouds coming. I'm like, yo, we about to get one of them tornadoes. I'm like, I, I'm like, faster I thought. 

Andrea: That sounds very unsafe. Um, but you know, as you were getting directions wrong with your space, whatever you were doing there, it was like one of those Madonna, isn't that the Madonna music video where she does that?

I don't know. We need people older than us to be able to, to tell, to tell us that. 'cause Madonna was before my time. Um, but 

Gerry: [00:07:00] really 

Andrea: I do feel like we need to acknowledge, I'm not gonna fully acknowledge because. I'm gonna have my husband Steven, who is a medical professional, come on and provide better information.

But, uh, I just have to say, Ms. Dugan and I were so, so incorrect with what we said last week. You also were not right. Um, but 

Gerry: I was more right than you were. 

Andrea: I mean, I wouldn't say that because I said proctologist and you said the one with the dinosaurs. So, 

Gerry: no, hold on here. Here's the difference in what we were doing.

Me. I had no idea what I was doing. I was just talking. I didn't know you thought you knew the wrong thing and taught me that. 

Andrea: I really did. 

Gerry: And 

Andrea: I 

Gerry: would like you repeated that to people. I taught you other people that men kept their hormones in their prostate. 

Andrea: That's incorrect. Guys. I'm so sorry. I told my husband about our episode and I was like, can't you [00:08:00] believe, like, can you even believe that Jerry didn't know this?

And my husband who went to Yale for medicine, he is a pa. Um, and he looked at me and he is like, Andrea, none of what you told him is correct. I was like, hold on, wait. Like we need. We need to like rewind. I was like, some of it's right though, right? Like the proctologist is what checks the prostate. He's like, no, that is not correct.

And I was like, but the prostate is where the hormones are made. He's like, that is not correct. And I was like, okay, great. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. 

Gerry: You messed up. Cool, cool. You 

Andrea: messed up 

Gerry: hard. 

Andrea: Literally all of it. And I messaged Ms. Dugan about it. I text her. I was like, girl. We were so confident but so wrong.

She said we really had the confidence of a straight white man with what we said. And I was like, we really did, and we were just batting zero. It was pretty rough. So I just wanna acknowledge that. I'm sure the comments are gonna obliterate Ms. Dugan and I, but 

Gerry: good as they should and they should come and they should come to my page and bow before me.[00:09:00] 

Andrea: I don't know about that, but I just felt maybe we should acknowledge 

Gerry: I can. I, I spoke to one other person. Who I work with, I'm not gonna say who it is. 

Andrea: Okay. 

Gerry: Um, 'cause it makes it sound, it makes it worse with who it was. And I told them this to make them laugh and they went, I didn't know that only men had prostates either.

They kinda like brushed you off and then they said, you know how T think I know. I don't think I knew that until you told me that. And I'm thinking, Hmm, 

Andrea: okay. I went 

Gerry: back to be 

Andrea: clear though, 

Gerry: and hold on. I went, I went and towel telled on that person to all my other coworkers who laughed at me. 'cause I told 'em, I said, you know, I just found that only man, that prostate.

Andrea: Well that on the podcast 

Gerry: yesterday. Yes. 

Andrea: I know. That's, 

Gerry: I mean, 

Andrea: I don't know. True Terry. Well, I just wanted to clarify because 

checked, 

Gerry: but. 

Andrea: I just wanted clarify. I back checking because I was wrong on so many other things. The prostate thing, I was correct on women. Women do not have prostates, but 

Gerry: I thought just hours like faulted out sooner and that's why we were getting 'em [00:10:00] checked.

Andrea: They got that error message. Yeah, a little bit sooner than ladies. Okay. Yeah, I do know that. Well, okay. I should guys, we are not a medical podcast. This is what I have heard from people in my life who are in the medical field. Um, but that basically men, if you live long enough, will eventually get prostate cancer, is what I've heard from multiple.

That's medical professionals. That's not. That's fine. I'm not gonna die on that hill. That's not my hill. I'm gonna die on today. 

Gerry: That's the hill I'm gonna die on. That's cat. That's not true. Okay. Because I've known some brothers that's been around for a minute and, and they've been fine. 

Andrea: And they wouldn't tell you if they had prostate cancer, they'd be like, Hey, by the way, they removed my prostate.

You think that 

Gerry: No, you can get your whole, you can get your prostate removed. 

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: We're gonna change name. 

Andrea: I'm afraid we're going down the road 

Gerry: to how to survive the prostate. 

Andrea: I'm afraid we're gonna go down a road that like [00:11:00] is, um, one we shouldn't because we don't know what we're talking about. So maybe we should just like, pull up before too much other medical things are discussed because, man, I screwed up so bad.

Uh, and my husband looked at me like I was so dumb. But he's gonna come on guys. I, I want him to come on and do a, um, just. Biology lesson for all of us. 

If 

Gerry: he does, me and him are gonna plot something against you. 

Andrea: I don't love that. I do not love that. Mm. 

We're 

Andrea: gonna come 

Gerry: up with something. Mm-hmm. And I can tell you what it was.

Andrea: Great. Great. Um, I have news though on a, uh, not teacher front or educational front. Not that our prostate conversation was educational, um, but we are getting a. Bulldog Puppy, an English Bulldog puppy tomorrow, and I am so excited. You guys, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna share, his name's gonna be Winston, and I'm very excited.

I'll make sure to bring him [00:12:00] and introduce him to everyone on the podcast because he's going to be obviously our official mascot of the podcast. So 

Gerry: I was the mascot. 

Andrea: Uh, would we say that 

Gerry: Kim, my little cousin? Be our mascot. 

Andrea: I hate that guys. He just held up a, a, what is it called? A fugly. A fug. 

Gerry: They're called a fugler.

Andrea: A fugler. It's a stuffed animal that looks like a nightmare. 

Gerry: Zero fugler. 

Andrea: I've heard that also. These are making their way into the classrooms just like the needles are. Are you seeing those in the classroom or is this just something that you decided to get when you were getting toys at? Target today as a grown man.

Don't look at me and judge me for describing exactly what you did, 

Gerry: but you geeking about puppies. Look, I just seen it in Target one time. It was 10 bucks, and I was like, I got 10 bucks. I'm grown. I'm a grown man. I got, who's got $10? I'm gonna buy this Fugger. And I named him Randolph. 

Andrea: Great. You've got [00:13:00] Fler money 

Gerry: and oh, it gets worse.

My mom visited my brother this weekend and they went to Walmart and they go to the discount section and those things were five bucks. They had four different ones. I got all four. 

Andrea: I I don't, I need you to explain to me why you would get something that is actually disgusting to look at. And this is open not only to you by the way, but to our listeners as well.

If you have bought one of those things. I want an explanation. I literally don't understand why you would buy something that is upsetting to look at 

Gerry: because they are hilarious. 

Andrea: What? How is it hilarious? It 

Gerry: doesn't upset me. 

Andrea: Show it to me again. 

Gerry: I feel fine looking at this. 

Andrea: Oh, I hate it. It actually upsets me.

Like it's got like this is yellow. This is your bull 

Gerry: dog. Puppies gonna look like. 

Andrea: Probably this was not my choice in case anyone was wondering. 

Gerry: Then they make other ones too. I'm gonna, I'm gonna do a quick one minute drill of the Fler history. I started seeing them when I was in New York at five Below.

They had little tiny dolls and they had like [00:14:00] SpongeBob Fugler, Patrick Fugler, and they're like the regular ones, but zombie looking and they all kinds of different characters. When I started seeing the regular fler in this full size plushy fuzzy form. So I bought those instead of the little figurines.

And now I'm up to one physically, but I own five of them, and the other four are coming. And now I'm in Target today and I start seeing, they make a icons, one of like, it look like one of 'em might have been Madonna or Lady Gaga on the back. I don't, no, I can't tell them apart when they're in Fler form. And then they have Michael Jordan one and they all kinds of like little star fuggers.

They had the, um, the uh, uh, the, the, the powder puff girls, the powder puff fuggers. They had all of 'em. 

Andrea: Really 

Gerry: Power puff. Power puff power puff power puff 

Andrea: powder. 

Gerry: Powder puff is what is the thing high schools do at football games, right? Where the girls play football in the boys cheer. You ever heard a powder puff?

Andrea: Yes. I think it's 

Gerry: power. Puff puff. I think it's power puff. I say power puff. It's, it's the power puff girls, the the green one, the blue [00:15:00] one in the, and the pink one. And then they hung out with that dude and fought, and fought that, uh, that animal with that with the doctor suit on. 

Andrea: I actually think it would be so funny to just have you watch a film and review it because the way you describe things is outrageous.

Um, and it would be, I think, educational for all of us just to see, just as like a case study study to see how your brain works. That like, oh yeah, no, that's, I guess, technically correct on what Powerpuff Girls was, but that's not my memory of it. It's like your brain does to. Films and descriptions what the Fler dolls does to toys.

It just makes it this like it's there. But you kind of, 

Gerry: it's effective as hell though. 

Andrea: I bet it is. I genuinely bet it is. Um, have your students done anything insane this week? Have you even seen, no. It's today's Monday. So you haven't seen them? No. It's today's 

Theme: Monday and we was [00:16:00] out. 

Andrea: How, how were they last week?

Did they behave? 

Gerry: Uh, 

Andrea: because last we heard. They had a sub and they acted up for that sub, 

Gerry: and them little baby's been perfect ever since, 

Andrea: uh, as they should be. That's right. Sometimes that is what it like. Here's the thing. As both a mom and a teacher, I do feel like I, number one, I feel guilty every single time I lose my temper and I'm like super angry and yell, but it's effective.

Sometimes 

Gerry: I only feel guilty. If I went too hard. 

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: And if I went too hard, I'll address 'em. But hey, I went a little too hard. Here's why I went that hard. All that. I'll address it and I'll like, apologize for it. Say I shouldn't have done this, but you shouldn't have done that. But if I, if I feel like I went the proper amount hard, they ain't here nothing for me.

I'm going back to my desk and they gonna shut up and they gonna do our work and that's gonna be it. But I, I can tell when I went too hard. 

Andrea: Yeah. [00:17:00] Yeah, but I mean, I feel like if you do lose your temperature or temperature, oh my gosh, words are so hard. I have been doing nothing but yapping all day, and so I'm starting to lose it a little.

Um, if you do lose your temper with students and then go back and apologize, I feel like that actually builds a ton of rapport and respect with them. Like it does a ton. Um, but I visited one of the middle schools today. I was just chatting with one of my students and she said that last week. The middle school biology class went over sex ed.

So five days going over birds and the bees prostates and all of that. 

Gerry: They do in biology? 

Andrea: Yeah, 

Gerry: we do In pe. 

Andrea: Yes. So at this school they did it in biology and what also I thought was strange is it was not the teacher that did it. They had a former, like apparently there's like a group in my district. Of retired teachers that come into other people's classrooms and do sex ed [00:18:00] for eighth graders.

I think that's weird. 

Gerry: I, I, I think that's, I'm glad you said former teacher. I I, when you said they bring in former and teaching sex ed, I was like, what are they bring out former sexer, but what are they, what are they doing? Who are they bringing in? A 

Andrea: former what? 

Gerry: A former sexer. I don't know what you call 'em, 

Andrea: sexer.

What is, are you talking about a 

Gerry: prostitute? I don't know. To someone who had No, no. Or, or not necessarily, just someone who knew, who was like out there with the sex. Like whether they were like a sexologist or if that's a thing. 

Andrea: Oh, 

Gerry: I felt like we had sexology at, in, at state. Like I feel like, like you, there were classes that studied sex.

Andrea: Sure. I mean maybe, but that's not, I didn't know 

Gerry: where you were going with that. That's all I'm saying. And that could have gone any direction. And I'm over 

Andrea: here like, man, you took me in the F fugler direction. I thought this, you were just like was, 

Gerry: I thought this was a b, c family. I didn't know where we was going with this.

But you said former teachers and we're all good 

Andrea: former teachers that come in though and they like [00:19:00] do their entire, like they do all of this sex talk, all like, number one, it's all the eighth graders together so they don't split up the boys and the girls. And I don't know about you, but for me. Whenever there was, well, I don't think they split us up in high school, but in fifth grade they did birds and the bees and they split us up into two different locations for boys and girls.

But this group, apparently it was like all of the kids in biology, former teachers, not their teachers, just a different group that came and gave the sex talk. Don't you think that's weird? 

Gerry: Nah, get former, get other people. Come in there. And what's weird is, is when, uh, you have to teach about, uh, we call it, uh, reproductive health of safety, when you gotta teach sex ed for, for a week or two, and then.

And then like the kids gotta come back and look you in the face after y'all learned all that. No, bring a stranger in. Make it less awkward. 'cause that person gets to go home to their family. They don't ever gotta see these kids again. [00:20:00] And it's like, um, it's like we gotta teach 'em sex ed and then be like, who wants to play dodge ball?

Like, we gotta act like it didn't happen. And it's like, yeah, it's uncomfortable. We went through, we went, we went through a huge part, like a huge life moment with them. And it's like, yeah, we don't need to be doing all that. Like we don't need to. That life moment with them. 

Andrea: Yeah, maybe that would be 

Gerry: better.

So there's another option, like yeah, if there's another option, do that. I, I teach business. I ain't even gotta teach sex ed no more. And I wanna bring in a former teacher, teach my class so there's don't former teachers feeling nostalgic. Come fill out the form and come. Love it. Talk to my class and I'll be in the back about business.

Andrea: Yeah. I'll 

Gerry: be in the back asking questions. Facilitating. 

Andrea: Perfect 

Gerry: that you 

Andrea: didn't know. I knew 

Gerry: that word. 

Andrea: I'm very impressed. Um, on that note, we are going to take a very quick break and we'll be right back.

Have you ever wondered what I would say if my mother and my administrators weren't watching every single thing I do on social media? Well, that's exactly what my standup show [00:21:00] is, and I'm gonna be coming to a town near you super soon. You can get tickets@educatorandrea.com slash tickets. Welcome back, teacher besties.

So, uh, we obviously have our hill we're gonna die on, but before we get to that, we do have a couple of questions that people sent in. So the first one, and this may take a second for us to think of answers, but I know how you love a pop quiz. You're real quick on, quick on your feet. What is something that students think is illegal but isn't?

Theme: Oh man, 

Gerry: I don't know. Everything I'm thinking of is illegal. Um, 

Andrea: I know 

Gerry: I heard at one point that it was not illegal. I think, I think the age for what smoking tobacco and stuff is, is, uh, 21 now. Is that Universal? Is that just North Carolina 

Andrea: 21? I think it's [00:22:00] 18 still in 

Gerry: most places, but no, it used to be 18.

It's 21 in North Carolina. I just don't know if that's federal or state 

Andrea: 21. Is the federal law since 2019? I had no idea. 

Gerry: I, I heard, I don't know if this is true, that if it's only 21 to buy it, you can use it under 21, but you cannot purchase it. 

Andrea: Interesting. I feel like most of the things like this question is interesting because, uh, rather than things students think are illegal, I feel like most of the time it's things that students think.

Are legal that are not legal, right? Because there's all of those, like, I actually don't know, but I always heard that like as long as you drink alcohol with your guardian, I always heard that that made you consuming alcohol under age legal, but 

Gerry: nope. 

Andrea: Is that not the case? 

Gerry: No. That's a lie. 

Andrea: See, I feel like these are the things that students like, 

Gerry: I'm pretty sure.

Yeah, [00:23:00] lemme throw that in there in case I'm wrong. Like, uh, somebody else on the podcast was 

Andrea: point to me. I, I've never been wrong on this podcast before. I don't know what you're talking about. Okay. So I'm gonna give it a, give it a Google. Is it illegal to drink alcohol under 21 with parental consent? Okay.

Laws vary heavily by state, and so if it's a private, non-commercial location and in your specific state, there are 29 states. Where laws allow minors to drink in private non-alcohol selling settings. So if you were at home and your dad gave you a beer and you were a certain age, then you maybe could, um, with exceptions for like religious ceremonies.

So like you could have communion wine, I guess. Like no one's gonna come in and be like, you're underage drinking if you're taking communion wine in a Catholic church. But there you go. Now we know. Yeah, that question's kind of hard 'cause I feel like it's like most of the time they think everything is [00:24:00] legal because they heard it on 

Gerry: let's different context.

I feel like depending on the age of the person who wrote this in, a lot of young people recently have been saying like, um, they call something illegal when it's not illegal. Like me buy like, like, oh my gosh, Gerald, you bought a Fler. That's illegal. Stuff like that. I feel like that's something people have been doing and I think we need to check the context of this 'cause like 

Andrea: that could, so maybe it's something they think is just like super uncool 

Gerry: cr or no, or Yeah.

Or not, shouldn't be doing. I don't, I really don't know. 

Andrea: That's brutal. What's 

Gerry: something, 

Andrea: well, how embarrassing is it too that like I'm officially so old that like they're asking something in some slang and then I'm like, is that I don't think it's a crime? And they're like, that's not what literally anyone meant.

I 

Gerry: would hope this person would be aware enough not to ask in a slang that when used the slang has an entirely different meaning. Like we [00:25:00] don't know if they're doing that. 

Andrea: I think, I think it's a nice thought that they would have that much critical thinking about it. But 

Gerry: yeah, like, like if you, like if you went like this and like picked your nose just a little bit right now, I'm like, that's illegal or something like that.

Interesting. Like you would get the context of that. 

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: I really don't know. I feel like maybe kids don't have a good grip on like airports, like stuff you can put in your bag and whatnot. 

Andrea: I feel like I don't have a good grip on airports and stuff. I can put in my, I fly a lot and I still, every time I go through the the TSA line, I am nervous.

I'm sweating. I probably look like I'm just moving drugs. 

Gerry: I got, got one time for RayBan sunglasses. RayBan's a lot. It set off, there was some chemical or something. 

Andrea: Oh 

Gerry: my gosh. And uh, then, then they just like, they had to search my bag. They pulled out and they're like, all right, you're good. This was it. And I'm like, that's my sunglasses.

Like, and they like opened up the case, took 'em out and all that. 

Andrea: Wow. I guess maybe they're metal. I actually, uh, got in big trouble [00:26:00] because I, uh, had pepper spray in an airport in Ireland, and that's illegal. And so I got a real nice sit down chat with some Irish folks that they interrogated me for a while, and I hope I'm not on any list.

I assume I'm not, but who's to say honestly? Um, okay, 

Gerry: I didn't know that. 

Andrea: Yeah, it's not, you can't bring, there's a lot of rules like that. Like you can't bring stimulant medication to Japan. So like if you're on like phentermine for weight loss or you're on a DH ADHD med or anything like that, you can't bring it into Japan.

Or you can, but it's like a crazy process. 'cause they don't allow like any stimulant drugs in Japan, 

Gerry: if a kid like this would probably be more of like high school age, had pepper spray on their key chains, technically that's a weapon. A student couldn't have that on campus, could they? Wouldn't that be illegal?

Andrea: I would think so. I think just any weapon 

Gerry: and, and I've maybe not, and that happens a lot. I don't know that it's happened [00:27:00] where I'm at, but I, I think like in like high school, I remember that. I don't think they got in trouble, but I remember thinking, I don't think you can have that. 

Andrea: So in Florida, um, you have to have parental consent.

But a lot of times it depends on the school campus policy, so not necessarily illegal. And I feel like that's a lot of things, like some things are not allowed, like if you're 18, or I guess it used to be if you were 18 and had cigarettes, then you wouldn't be um, in trouble if you were walking home and you had cigarettes, but then on campus you couldn't have it.

So maybe that's, I don't know. I dunno. Um, but. We have to get to our hill that we're gonna die on. So I was really trying to figure out what hill I'm dying on this week, and it's something. To do with standardized testing, but I feel like it, I'm still ruminating on my hill because it pisses me off. I can tell you that the hill is right now is that [00:28:00] standardized testing pisses me all the way off.

However, I also don't have an answer when people are like, okay, how do we evaluate student progress then in a way that is mass producible? And I don't have an answer for that. Um. So my, my thought is standardized testing sucks, and that's all I got right now. That's as far as I've been able to ruminate. So I'm hoping you have, um, something better than me this week for the, the hill that you're gonna die on.

Gerry: Okay. Mine's not really educational, but it's a thought that I felt today and I felt some recent, uh, in the last few days. So I said at the beginning, I started GLP one. I've been eating healthier. Um, I don't really cook. I gotta start cooking, but I just ain't got to it yet. I've never been one to cook. I just hate the process of doing all this work for one little bit of food.

I'm like, it gets on my nerve. This feels like a waste of time to me. But that's how I got here. So I had beef with like, so I've been going to Chick-fil-A. You can get grilled chicken and you can get fruit is almost like, it feels like [00:29:00] three to $5 more to get fruit as a side. Is to get french fries. 

Andrea: Yeah.

Gerry: And I'd like that should be a crime. Like why are we punishing people for making a good choice? I paid $14 for a stand for a Chick-fil-A combo just to con with a large fruit cup. And I got a large drink. 'cause I always just get the bigger drink. But it was like that would've been 10 bucks if I had not gotten fruit.

Andrea: Yeah. 

Gerry: Less than 10, and I mean, I got fruit. It is $14. 

Andrea: I know. I, I will say that that is one of the things that people say about like the obesity epidemic in general, is that the healthier option is usually more expensive. And so like, that's that. And like my, my sister's a nutritionist, um, and so she like did a bunch of research on like what do they, what they call food deserts.

Are you familiar with that phrase? 

Gerry: No. 

Andrea: Okay. Food desert is [00:30:00] essentially where you don't have access to, like produce type food. So you might have like gas station food, you might have like random stuff like that, but within like a certain walkable distance, you don't have access to like, like raw chicken and like the raw materials to cook.

And so they consider that like a food desert. And so there's a lot of programs out there that are trying to like mitigate that and all of that. But yeah. Yeah, that's not, I mean. It's expensive and, and the worst thing is, is then when you do finally like start cooking and stuff, you'll see that like you end up throwing away so much stuff.

'cause all the healthy, fresh food goes bad, which is super annoying. 

Gerry: Yeah. And I wouldn't even, like when I cook, it's like I don't mind the meal prepping. If I'm cooking to meal prep, that's fine. I never end up eating everything on meal. Prepping gets wasted. I'm so, this feels like a waste of time. You may gotta do all this, uh, breakdown.

And they say eating out costs more. It does when fruit's $7 for a cup. But it's like, I, I'd be thinking, but I'm like, man, if I wanna go, go, like grill a steak or [00:31:00] something, or grill a chicken, I gotta go buy a big pack of it. I gotta buy stuff to season it with. I gotta buy something to go with it. I gotta buy all this stuff when I could just go get a chicken and rice bowl, which Chipotle for nine bucks.

It's like, man, I don't know. For when it's just one person, like it might just be fine. Just go buy, buy the store and, and not make a big difference. 

Andrea: So what I'm hearing is we need to get a family and consumer science teacher on here to talk us through how to properly. Prepare Jerry for this new, uh, part of his life.

So if you are a family consumer science teacher and you wanna come on and talk us through, like if you got somebody who's like learning how to cook for the first time, give him like five meals he could cook, that wouldn't be insanely difficult, time consuming, all of that. I feel like that would be a good step is if we can get a family and consumer science teacher, because I love them.

I think that they're doing the Lord's work out there doing like the most. Real life applicable teaching. I feel like, other than I guess technically maybe what you [00:32:00] do, I'm still not sure what you teach. So who's to say? But I think that that's maybe one, one of our next guests needs to be a family and consumer science teacher.

I'll have to reach out 'cause I know I've got a couple that, that follow me. So 

Gerry: maybe, maybe somebody that deals in like produce economics too. Um, why it costs me, uh, like five extra dollars to get some grapes and apples cut up and cut from the chicken filet. 

Andrea: Right. 

Gerry: I mean, 

Andrea: that sounds right, right. If we could just get the CEO of Chick-fil-A on here to talk about why they're charging so much for their fruit, that would be great.

Guys, I am going to be in Kansas City and Nixon in Missouri coming up in the end of April. Um, and then I have kind of a long break. No, in May I'm gonna be in New Orleans, but other than that, I am gonna be taking a bit of a break. Um, teacher's lounge is gonna be coming back again in August, but we're not gonna be doing any touring over the summer.

Um, because, uh, Mr. Philip Lindsay is having a baby, so he's gonna be on [00:33:00] paternity leave. Um, but you can still catch me on Instagram and TikTok, as always at educator, Andrea, and you can probably catch Jerry at his mini shows. Jerry, what do you have coming up? 

Gerry: Um, the Raleigh Comedy Festival, March 26th through 28th, and I'll be opening for Joe Dombrowski in Columbus, Ohio, April 23rd and 24.

Andrea: Nice, our guy. Awesome. Um, and if you guys want to email us, um, especially if you're a family consumer science teacher, or the CEO O of Chick-fil-A, um, you can email me andrea@humancontent.com, or you can contact me at educator Andrea on Instagram and TikTok or the human. Content. Sorry. I don't know why I said that Weird.

I, it's like the words were really aggressively coming outta my mouth. The Human Content Podcast family on Instagram and TikTok at Human Content pos. Um, and Jerry, where can they find you? 

Gerry: I'm on Instagram and TikTok at comedy by gp. 

Andrea: [00:34:00] Lovely and thank you guys so much. For those of you who have left some wonderful feedback for us, we very much appreciate it.

And you can watch the full video episodes up every week on YouTube at Educator Andrea, and you can see Gerald's shirts and his. Fler, is that what it's, it sounds like I'm bullying you when I say Fugler, that zipper was in fact his jacket and absolutely nothing else. Um, and you would know that, oh, if you were watching it on, you can hear that?

I can. 

Gerry: That's great. 

Andrea: Yeah. I don't 

Gerry: show him a Spider-Man shirt. He's 

Andrea: act, 

Gerry: it's still big's 

Andrea: tall on somebody's 

Gerry: actual size. 

Andrea: Yep. It's crazy to hear zippers outta context, so if you guys wanna see that and enjoy it, you can check out our YouTube episodes. They're great. Um, thank you so much for listening. I am your host, Andrea for gum.

Gerry: I'm Jerry Patoka. 

Andrea: Our executive producers are Andrea Forche, Aron Korney, Rob Goldman and Shahnti Brook. Our editor is Andrew Sims. Our engineer is Jason Portizo. Our music is by Omer Ben-Zvi To learn [00:35:00] more about how to survive the classrooms. Program disclaimer and ethics policy and submission verification and licensing terms.

You can go to podcast or andrea.com. How To Survive Classroom is a human Content production.

Thank you so much for watching. Want more of how to survive the classroom? You can watch more episodes right now. Just click on that little box over there, you see it, and if you haven't yet, please subscribe. Okay, bye.