# What ARE schools teaching? A rant of sorts...



## backwoods

Over the last 2 days I've been looking at recipes a lot on line. Repeatedly, I've seen recipes listing "1 part of this, 1 part of that" etc. The part that amazes me, is that I've also seen repeated posts asking "what does 1 part mean?" and "How much is 1 part, because I need to know how much to mix?" At first I thought, well they just aren't thinking or something. But then I saw it again & again & again, by different people. Are there really this many adults who can't figure out what that means? Is this the result of the wonderful Math teaching in the past 25 years or so? All of the posts were by people who appeared under 30 yrs old.

The recipes weren't difficult at all. Example: Taco Seasoning, 1 part chili powder, 1 part ground cumin, 1 part garlic powder, & 1/4 to 3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, depending on how hot you like it. 
At first I chuckled in disbelief, then I began to feel sorry for them, then I got really angry about our educational system which has obviously FAILED them terribly. It served as a reminder to me to make SURE my kids can actually APPLY the "book learning" they get, to real life situations.


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## Liberty'sGirl

Schools are NOT teaching home economics and "one part" is an old phrase that just isn't used much anymore, even in math. I can see why they are confused they want exact cups and such, no understanding of ratios.


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## SLFarmMI

backwoods said:


> Over the last 2 days I've been looking at recipes a lot on line. Repeatedly, I've seen recipes listing "1 part of this, 1 part of that" etc. The part that amazes me, is that I've also seen repeated posts asking "what does 1 part mean?" and "How much is 1 part, because I need to know how much to mix?" At first I thought, well they just aren't thinking or something. But then I saw it again & again & again, by different people. Are there really this many adults who can't figure out what that means? Is this the result of the wonderful Math teaching in the past 25 years or so? All of the posts were by people who appeared under 30 yrs old.
> 
> The recipes weren't difficult at all. Example: Taco Seasoning, 1 part chili powder, 1 part ground cumin, 1 part garlic powder, & 1/4 to 3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, depending on how hot you like it.
> At first I chuckled in disbelief, then I began to feel sorry for them, then I got really angry about our educational system which has obviously FAILED them terribly. It served as a reminder to me to make SURE my kids can actually APPLY the "book learning" they get, to real life situations.


Why are you automatically blaming the schools because some people don't know this? Teaching a child how to cook and figure out a recipe that calls for parts is a parent's responsibility.


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## mistletoad

I think anyone who writes a recipe that starts 1 part this and 1 part that but then gives a very specific and limited range for the last ingredient might have skipped a few lessons themselves.


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## ErinP

I had the same thought. 
How could they have parts and then teaspoons?? That doesn't even make sense...


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## Two Tracks

Oh geese, I just sent a post on sheep forum using the 1 to 1 ratio of corn and oats then 1/2 soy meal with a touch of stock molasses added for a grain formula. hummm, does this mean I'm old school? Actually, it is pretty unbelievable how much our national school system is ever changing... I honestly don't know if I know the formula for figuring portions from school or just plain common sense ~Chris


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## HoofPick

backwoods said:


> The recipes weren't difficult at all. Example: Taco Seasoning, 1 part chili powder, 1 part ground cumin, 1 part garlic powder, & 1/4 to 3/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, depending on how hot you like it.


I understand using ratios when cooking but when you use ratios and then ad a specific unit of measure it doesn't make sense. If the recipe were calling for TBS (parts) that might work but if you wanted a big batch and used a cup (parts) the fractions of a TSP would not work.


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## CJofWolfcreek

well for the taco seasoning...how many parts meat?

This will either be some pretty potent or pretty bland stuff depending upon how much meat the seasoning is for.

It's difficult for me to teach cooking because I season by taste. Exact measurements don't really cut it.

Continue adding spice/herbs until sweat pours from your forehaed and you think your eyes are bleeding....then it's good and spicy :smack


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## MDKatie

SLFarmMI said:


> Why are you automatically blaming the schools because some people don't know this? Teaching a child how to cook and figure out a recipe that calls for parts is a parent's responsibility.


Exactly. Schools can only do so much. They can't teach children everything they'll need to know in life. Life skills (like cooking, manners, etc) should be taught at home.


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## Laura Zone 5

What are schools teaching?

1. Mediocrity

2. Complacency 

3. There are NO absolutes.

4. Tolerance (well for everything except traditional..feel free to discriminate there)

5. Thinking outside the 'group' is bad.

6. Absolute obedience to the 'authority' (teacher principal).

7. Lies.

8. How to acquire free birthcontrol and free abortions.


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## KnowOneSpecial

Laura, I homeschooled for 5 years and there are bad parts about homeschooling, too. I met some smart kids who went only as far as their authoritarian parents would let them and I've met kids who never had art, music or anything of the finer things in life. 


AAAANYWAYS...... This is how my Grandma cooked. For her, a "part" usually meant a cup or a handful. She was an awesome cook. She's been gone for 6 years and hasn't cooked for almost 20, but I still remember her chicken and biscuits, creamed peas and red velvet cakes as akin to the Nectar Of The Gods! I asked her to write down her recipes and it was all "One part this and two parts that". It's not a new way of thinking. 

Grandma never got beyond 8th grade and the last 2 years of her education were spotty. She taught me fractions by cooking with me. To this day I can add an subtract fractions faster than an MIT Math Grad, but multiplying and diving them are tough! 

Another reason folks are doing this is because of the internet. If you have to convert recipes from cups to metrics, it changes the recipe. If you do parts it's different. 

I personally like recipes that are in parts. I have a huge family and where you would take a part to equal a tablespoon I might take it to mean a cup. We go through a lot of taco seasoning. I can see us making a huge recipe of it that would equal 3-4 cups. 

And the other posters are right....some things, like cooking, should be taught in the home.


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## MDKatie

Laura Zone 5 said:


> What are schools teaching?
> 
> 1. Mediocrity
> 
> 2. Complacency
> 
> 3. There are NO absolutes.
> 
> 4. Tolerance (well for everything except traditional..feel free to discriminate there)
> 
> 5. Thinking outside the 'group' is bad.
> 
> 6. Absolute obedience to the 'authority' (teacher principal).
> 
> 7. Lies.
> 
> 8. How to acquire free birthcontrol and free abortions.


I really think it's doing a total disservice to the education system and all those hard working teachers to describe schools/teachers like this. I've not seen a single instance of this happening in my 18 years of the education system (13 years of primary plus 5 years of college0, or in the 7 years my stepkids have been in public schools. 

Besides, don't you think the same could be said for kids who are homeschooled? You could say they only get introduced to one way of thinking (their parents' way), absolute obedience to their teacher (aka parents), "lies", etc. I would never catergorize all homeschooling this way, so I don't really think it's fair to categorize all public schooling that way either.


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## SLFarmMI

Laura Zone 5 said:


> What are schools teaching?
> 
> 1. Mediocrity
> 
> 2. Complacency
> 
> 3. There are NO absolutes.
> 
> 4. Tolerance (well for everything except traditional..feel free to discriminate there)
> 
> 5. Thinking outside the 'group' is bad.
> 
> 6. Absolute obedience to the 'authority' (teacher principal).
> 
> 7. Lies.
> 
> 8. How to acquire free birth control and free abortions.


Wow, that's insulting. Not to mention incorrect. When you make posts like that, you demean the efforts of every public school teacher across the country. I haven't been on here bashing the job that homeschoolers are doing (although, based on the homeschoolers I have encountered IRL, I could). How about sending the same courtesy and respect back the other way? There is no educational method (public school, private school, religious school, homeschool, online school, etc) that is perfect. However, we should at least have the common courtesy to not bash each other.


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## MichaelZ

K12 schools no longer make a child retake a grade or a class. Ever. So if they do not know how to calculate 1/2 + 1/3, they are either passed through with a C or they are given a calculator and instructed how to use the fraction key. Self-esteem trumps actual education. This is one reason we home school - we made our one daughter retake a critical year of arithmetic - But now she knows it.

And this is not to bash K12 teachers - their hands are usually tied. They MUST pass Johnny or Jane through, one way or another. It is more about the direction we as a society are moving. Also, teachers often have 30-40 students in a class and can not give the individual attention that some students (like my daughter for example) would need.


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## SLFarmMI

MichaelZ said:


> K12 schools no longer make a child retake a grade or a class. Ever. So if they do not know how to calculate 1/2 + 1/3, they are either passed through with a C or they are given a calculator and instructed how to use the fraction key. Self-esteem trumps actual education. This is one reason we home school - we made our one daughter retake a critical year of arithmetic - But now she knows it.
> 
> And this is not to bash K12 teachers - their hands are usually tied. They MUST pass Johnny or Jane through, one way or another. It is more about the direction we as a society are moving. Also, teachers often have 30-40 students in a class and can not give the individual attention that some students (like my daughter for example) would need.


That actually depends on many factors including the administration and parents. I have retained students. Last year I retained about 4 if memory serves. I have had parents refuse retention and I have had parents request retention. The bottom line, at least in my district, is that parents have the final say. I've had several students over the years that absolutely should not have gone to the next grade and everybody knew it, including the kid, but the parents insisted they go forward.


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## MichaelZ

SLFarmMI said:


> That actually depends on many factors including the administration and parents. I have retained students. Last year I retained about 4 if memory serves. I have had parents refuse retention and I have had parents request retention. The bottom line, at least in my district, is that parents have the final say. I've had several students over the years that absolutely should not have gone to the next grade and everybody knew it, including the kid, but the parents insisted they go forward.


You are doing the kids a great favor by doing this! Good job! 

Glad to hear this is still being done.


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## ErinP

Laura Zone 5 said:


> What are schools teaching?
> 
> 1. Mediocrity
> 
> 2. Complacency
> 
> 3. There are NO absolutes.
> 
> 4. Tolerance (well for everything except traditional..feel free to discriminate there)
> 
> 5. Thinking outside the 'group' is bad.
> 
> 6. Absolute obedience to the 'authority' (teacher principal).
> 
> 7. Lies.
> 
> 8. How to acquire free birthcontrol and free abortions.


What kind of schools have you been _in_ lately???

While I've no doubt they are out there, I've worked in dozens over the past 15 years, literally (I sub) and have never seen this.
I think people latch on to isolated incidences and blow them up to be representative of the entire institution. And that is completely unfair.


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## Laura Zone 5

Erin, those were my personal experiences with the public school system in my area.
You mileage may vary.

Yes there are good teachers. I work with a couple.
They have to get summer jobs waiting tables to make ends meet.
One teaches K and one, high school.
They are BOTH quality teachers.
Young, untenured, and fresh out of college with hopes and dreams, and an unquenchable desire to 'teach and reach'.

Again, these are my personal experiences, in my area.
If they are nothing like yours, good. No kid should have to go through what the kids endure here, in my area.


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## Laura Zone 5

SLFarmMI said:


> Wow, that's insulting. Not to mention incorrect. When you make posts like that, you demean the efforts of every public school teacher across the country. I haven't been on here bashing the job that homeschoolers are doing (although, based on the homeschoolers I have encountered IRL, I could). How about sending the same courtesy and respect back the other way? There is no educational method (public school, private school, religious school, homeschool, online school, etc) that is perfect. However, we should at least have the common courtesy to not bash each other.


Don't take it personal, it's my experiences in my area.
Please see my response to Erin.


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## Laura Zone 5

Yes, I have seen some jacked up home schooled kids too.
When we sold our used books at a used book sale.....my kids were VERY uncomfortable around MOST of the homeschooled kids.
MOST of the kids at the sale were socially awkward, very very bright, very little common sense, very few social skills.
Again, this is in my area.
We didn't do "co-op" or home school groups for this very reason.
Homeschool moms, especially with youngers, speak in a weird sing-songy voice always 'teaching' out loud.....nothing natural. 
Again, weird, and what my personal experiences in my area have been.

Reaaar (insert cat hiss and spit) 
Everyone can totally disagree, and that's ok.
I know what my experiences are.
I know all 3 of my kids are in college, and not socially retarded.
My PS systems sucked, so I homeschooled.
My homeschool co-ops were weird so I didn't do it.

I am not bashing 'individuals' (IE I never said "Hey Sally, you suck and can't teach).
I am bashing the system in my area.
And the system and it's facilitators of the system, have earned it.


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## Ardie/WI

About the only thing I want to add to the discussion is...

Please, parents, teach your sons to cook and how to sew on a button! I'll never forget watching my first husband sew on a button. I almost wet myself!


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## backwoods

SLFarmMI said:


> Why are you automatically blaming the schools because some people don't know this? Teaching a child how to cook and figure out a recipe that calls for parts is a parent's responsibility.


WHY? Really??? Because "ratios" & "fractions" are an elementary MATH class. I would think "estimation" is also an even earlier elementary math class, (as in, amount of red pepper flakes needed "to desired taste"). It has nothing to do with Home Ec class.
Common sense is apparently non-existent in this country now, except in a few rare instances.


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## ErinP

Call me old fashioned, but I tend to think the quality of my children's education rests upon their father and I. 
Schooling is nothing more than a single tool we use to achieve that goal.


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## CathyGo

I baked a batch of brownies every once in a while at the barracks. I would use the common area oven and get lots of requests to cook people stuff like brownies or cupcakes because some of the other soldiers didn't know how to make them from a BOXED MIX. The first few times somebody told me that I thought they were joking but some people really had never baked anything.

My mom told me "If you can cook you will never starve" and made sure I knew at least the basics of cooking. Some of those people who couldn't bake from a boxed mix were parents. Hopefully somebody will be around to teach their kids.


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## backwoods

Schools don't "teach" kids how to "teach themselves" to do anything new that wasn't covered in class? My mother, (a career woman) nor the schools, taught me how to cook, or can, or sew, or crochet, or knit, or how to milk a goat, etc. The school DID teach me to read, to which I am eternally grateful, because that's how I taught myself to do many other things. Anybody who doesn't know how, just doesn't want to.


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## CraterCove

SLFarmMI said:


> Wow, that's insulting. Not to mention incorrect. When you make posts like that, you demean the efforts of every public school teacher across the country. I haven't been on here bashing the job that homeschoolers are doing (although, based on the homeschoolers I have encountered IRL, I could). How about sending the same courtesy and respect back the other way? There is no educational method (public school, private school, religious school, homeschool, online school, etc) that is perfect. However, we should at least have the common courtesy to not bash each other.



You know, people who homeschool often have very strong opinions and feelings about the public institutions. I don't believe it is aimed at individuals at all, a comment like this. No educational method may be perfect but there is the perfect method for me and my family. And to the person who said that homeschooled children are only exposed to one way of thinking or to view the parents as absolute authority (paraphrasing): Some of us believe god gave us free will for a reason and try and educate our children not to be yes men and giving the answer you think I want to hear will gain you lower marks than being outright wrong. I think especially libertarian homeschoolers like to see proof of individualism in their children/ students... but that's likely just because I classify myself as libertarian and well shoot if I didn't think that was the best mindset I wouldn't have it.  lol

The portion of the public schools I find dangerous and disappointing on a regular basis is the administration and the political currents. Keep in mind that from my perspective the hard core religious right is as much a threat to how I want to live my life as the hard core progressive left. My goal is not to indoctrinate my children to any specific mindset. I want to teach them how to think and teach them how to learn for themselves. I am a big proponent of the Socratic method. 

I think teachers would find themselves better paid and held in higher regard if the government stopped taking money from us for the education of our children and allowed us to spend it ourselves. I think they'd not have to take summer jobs waiting tables if they were employed individually by families or communities and they would have a lot more freedom to employ their skills and get more job satisfaction too. But ~shrug~ even that has its potential pitfalls doesn't it? 

I don't think anyone who homeschools has disdain for the teaching profession-- in fact I think we have far more appreciation for what they do than the average parent who uses the public school system all the way through.


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## TNHermit

Recent comments by an Illinois school district official seem to suggest it doesn&#8217;t matter if students get simple arithmetic wrong under new Common Core standards, but those remarks highlighted in some news reports don&#8217;t give the full context.
Several news outlets have seized on remarks made last month by Grayslake, Ill. Community Consolidated School District 46 curriculum coordinator Amanda August in which she said it matters less if students answer 3 x 4 incorrectly as long as they can explain how they arrived at their final answer.
But the 43-second clip of August&#8217;s response being highlighted, in which she explains the &#8220;different ways&#8221; students will be taught to do problems under Common Core, does not show the first part of her answer in which she said students should &#8220;come up with the same answer no matter how they do&#8221; the problem.
The truncated clip features August&#8217;s statement: &#8220;But even under the new Common Core if even if they said 3 x 4 was 11, if they were able to explain their reasoning and explain how they came up with their answer, really in words and oral explanations and they showed it in a picture but they just got the final number wrong? We&#8217;re more focusing on the how and the why.&#8221;


http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...ents-get-simple-math-wrong-under-common-core/


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## I_don't_know

Laura Zone 5 said:


> What are schools teaching?
> 
> 1. Mediocrity
> 
> 2. Complacency
> 
> 3. There are NO absolutes.
> 
> 4. Tolerance (well for everything except traditional..feel free to discriminate there)
> 
> 5. Thinking outside the 'group' is bad.
> 
> 6. Absolute obedience to the 'authority' (teacher principal).
> 
> 7. Lies.
> 
> 8. How to acquire free birthcontrol and free abortions.


And when they graduate they know they should use a condom:hrm:; they just cannot read the directions.:smack


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## IndyGardenGal

Laura Zone 5 said:


> What are schools teaching?
> 
> 8. How to acquire free birthcontrol and free abortions.


I went to public schools in Indiana (I graduated 10 years ago). I never was taught these things, nor did any of the students inform me how to go about doing this.


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## Phil V.

I agree with you Laura Zone 5. My mom and sister are retired teachers and have seen the same as you around where we live.


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## IndyGardenGal

Phil V. said:


> I agree with you Laura Zone 5. My mom and sister are retired teachers and have seen the same as you around where we live.


I think it really depends on the area. I have met a lot of fantastic teachers locally, and a few that do have egos that seem to get in the way of their job.


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## Raven132

The final straw for me to homeschooling my 8 year old next year was hearing local elementary teachers proudly state that preaching to the kids was far more important than teaching them and they didn't care if it cost them their job. Should have done it a year ago when the math homework started looking like a bunch of nonsense.


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## vancom

We have homeschooled our youngest for a year now; she is almost 16. There were way too many problems in her freshman year of high school, ranging from papers being sent home with, for example, math problems marked as "correct" when they were wrong, disciplinary issues, disagreements with other students, and generally a lot of crap. Lots of "pep rallies" and time out of class, tests on things never covered in class because the teacher ran out of time, etc. It was toxic all around.

This has been a much better year. MUCH better. 

As for the topic what are schools teaching? I have no idea. And I am much happier not knowing.


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## backwoods

SLFarmMI said:


> Why are you automatically blaming the schools because some people don't know this? Teaching a child how to cook and figure out a recipe that calls for parts is a parent's responsibility.


They aren't "children" anymore, they are 30 something!


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## gweny

It greatly disturbs me how many people simply don't know how to cook. Do they just eat out every night? I think they might just nuke frozen meals because that section of the grocery store is now twice as big as the produce section. 
I'll never forget the first time I baked bread while my step kids were here. They acted like I had performed a miracle!?
Don't worry, they know how to cook now. 
Cooking truly is the best way to learn fractions and you can't depend on the schools here either. They no longer teach cursive or penmanship?! Spelling and vocabulary programs here are a complete joke. My 12yo SS can barely write! He likes to draw cartoons for me (they're pretty funny) but I have to get him to read to me what the people are saying.
I've decided that the purpose of schools are to teach kids how to function at a job, in society, and with their peers. If I want them to learn anything else than I better step up and teach them myself.


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## Danaus29

I learned how to do parts and fractions of parts in early elementary school. It's really not that difficult.

But what I did see when my kids were in public school is that it didn't matter if the child grasped the concept or not, they were sent to the next grade. Dd got to 6th grade with only a 2nd grade reading comprehension. I spent a week giving her the answers to the metric section of her math when she didn't understand it, then spent the whole weekend explaining and demonstrating the metric system before it clicked. (I had no choice but to give her the answers, she had already served detention for not completing her homework when she didn't understand something) And they did the metric system less than a month before it was on to the next concept.

And our proficiency tests were a joke. It didn't matter if the math answers were correct or not, as long as the work was shown. Something as simple as 3 + 1 = _ was incorrect if the child simply wrote 4. No, they had to show their work for something that was so simple the answer shouldn't have required writing it out and thinking about it. And with the writing section, a fail or pass was simply up to the answer committee. I saw samples of writing that were full of spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors that received a passing grade and other answers that were well written and stayed on topic which received failing grades. 

As for private school teachers being well paid, HA! At least around here they don't get paid near as much as public school teachers. They are not protected by the unions either.


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## mistletoad

Danaus29 said:


> As for private school teachers being well paid, HA! At least around here they don't get paid near as much as public school teachers. They are not protected by the unions either.


In our county they don't have to be as well qualified either.


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## Danaus29

They do here. And they have to keep their certifications current.


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## KnowOneSpecial

Ardie/WI said:


> About the only thing I want to add to the discussion is...
> 
> Please, parents, teach your sons to cook and how to sew on a button! I'll never forget watching my first husband sew on a button. I almost wet myself!


We all know my oldest brother got married because he was hungry and she could cook!


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