When I was in grade school, there were 18 of us altogether.
Not in one class, but counting every student between 1st grade and 6th grade, there were only 18 of us.
This was in the 1970s, by the way, so you might think the days of the “one-room schoolhouse” were a thing of the past, but you’d be wrong about that. There was one teacher to handle all of the kids in all of the grades. Her name was Miss Jones, and I still remember her fondly to this day. Miss Jones was the one who encouraged me to read and write, to follow my dreams, and eventually, she encouraged me to get out of rural Illinois for a better life. Don’t get me wrong, I love Illinois, and it is filled with some of the nicest people you will ever meet. But I did not want to live on a remote Illinois farm, I wanted more out of life. Miss Jones was the one who showed me there were two different sides to Illinois. I had only experienced the rural side and the farming community, but Illinois had big cities, fine arts, and culture if I could just find it! Once I made it to Champaign, Illinois for my first college classes, I also discovered the wide variety of cannabis that the Prairie State has to offer. You want to talk about an eye opening experience! I know Miss Jones is proud of me for going to an Illinois state college, but she probably wouldn’t approve of all the cannabis I smoke.