For the first half of my career, I lived in a cloud of chalk dust. It couldn't have been healthy. The boards had to be periodically cleaned. Now, chalkboards are a thing of the past. They have been replaced by Smartboards with whiteboards--which still need to be cleaned, but without all the clouds of dust swirling overhead. The visible clouds have been replaced by less visible, yet seemingly more noxious, odors emitted by the markers.
Personally, I miss the world of chalk. Chalk is cheap, or so they almost say. The board markers are comparatively expensive and usually in short supply. They have a short life. They can eat up teachers' choice. Adieu to all those scholarly things I used to purchase when cheap chalk was in limitless supply.
I recently stumbled upon some markers and took only two. I didn't want to hoard like a comrade of the former Soviet Union whose eyes pop out of his head when a truckload of consumer goods rolls into town. But, similarly, I do not wish to feel like the nineteenth-century sweat-shop lady forced to pay for the oil, needles and electricity for her machine. Oh, my kingdom for a package of markers!
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