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Lancasterian Method of Education 2010/01/25 (13)
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Jun 5, 2025
Jon Roland discusses an alternative method of education that would work better to both impart knowledge and skills, and to instill civic virtue. With Lela Pittinger. Austin Constitution Meetup 2010/01/25.
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by the way the system of Education that
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my grandfather used Al I don't think
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even he knew the name of
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it was a lancasterian monitorial
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system it was developed by a guy named
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Joseph Lancaster in England in
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1798 uh Lancaster was able as a single
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School Master to teach a thousand
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kids um and the lancasterian schools
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spread all across the world wow it was a
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primary method of Education used in in
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in the the British
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colonies
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um Lancaster caught a lot of criticism
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however as the alternative to his system
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were Church based schools that taught
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religion to members of their Church and
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generally only for the upper class of
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people he caught criticism for two
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reasons first of all in his monitorial
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system they weren't teaching one
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sectarian view of
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religion he left the kids the Bible was
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one of the reading materials but he
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could let the the kids could read it
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from any Viewpoint they wanted to they
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did their own reading they weren't being
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dictated to by minister right and second
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of all he was teaching lower class
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kids it was open to anybody who had a
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couple of shillings to pay for it and a
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desire to learn and a desire to
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learn and that was considered very
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dangerous that you know we only want
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with Lord class people learning becoming
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educated then they could read the
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legislation that has been put over their
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lives right now of course that was not
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an objection in the United States and
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it's Republican virtues they what
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everybody want be educated but it was in
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England right so
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uh uh it flourished in many ways in the
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United States what became the United
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States more than in
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England um but then
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uh
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uh a reformer Koss
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man and uh he brought the the European
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Le
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system forse
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man uh which would might have been
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reasonably well suited for University
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students but it was not suited for
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younger people
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right uh it got some Traction in large
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part because of the success of valerian
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system because when you have a system in
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which everybody teaches and and
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everybody learns you produce a lot of
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people who want to be teachers too many
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people in
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fact and the the horse man System
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created more jobs for
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teachers because when one guy can teach
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a thousand kids that's only creating a
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job for one teacher right when
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uh a teacher is only teaching 30 kids at
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a
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time five a day that's creating more
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jobs for teachers so Lancaster was a
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victim of his own success
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yes but there are still Lancaster
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lancasterian schools in the
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world it's still a method used in the
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military academies for
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example is there's some Lancaster
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schools in England and in
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Mexico and what I did a few years ago is
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I formed the lancasterian society again
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revived it at after you know almost 200
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years and I've been trying to get
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support for uh uh the method to be
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adopted and for lancasterian schools to
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be formed and is that on your
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Constitution website or is that a
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separate website no that's on the
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constitution.org it's a sub subsite I'm
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planning eventually to spin it out of
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the separate
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site on your list of things to do on my
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list of things to do wonderful uh before
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we came in I pointed out uh my problem
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in in that
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regard uh like a lot of people I keep a
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list of things to do mhm and of course
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it was getting to unwieldy because I
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spending too much time maintaining my
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list of things to do right so I decided
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Well what I really should do is to make
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a final comprehensive list and estimate
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for each item how long it would take to
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do
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it so I did but I did this on a
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spreadsheet of course you know on a
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spreadsheet it's very easy not only list
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things but to Total things right so when
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I got finished listing everything I
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total out under at the end of it for all
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the things that I wanted to
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do 26,000 years well and the trick about
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a spreadsheet is unlike a pad of paper
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there is no bottom there is no end you
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can continue there's more cells and more
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cells every cell that you page down that
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can be the trick about spreadsheets
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Maybe you should have stuck with the
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yellow pad well I still use a yellow
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pad I have whole boxes full of them
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going back decades wow but
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um there sort of my diary as it
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were anyway the
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um I figured after I came up with that
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number that I better delegate right and
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so if people wanted to help if they
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wanted to say John I think you have
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great ideas how can I help what do I do
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how can I Whittle down some of these
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26,000 bazillion bajillion years of work
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you have left well I have a little list
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and it's on your website no well sort of
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it's very it's it's several lists on my
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website on my website there are plenty
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of things for plenty of people to
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do um I could easily put you know tens
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hundreds of thousands of people to work
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in your lancasterian system yeah that
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well that
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alone you know but just all the other
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things that need to be done so if you're
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if you out there are watching this and
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you don't have enough to do
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already uh I've got some ideas for you
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and if you're watching this and you have
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plenty to do but you realize that all
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the little side things you have may not
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be as effective at making change that
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you know needs to happen in this nation
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then you need to call John because you
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can definitely look back and say oh I
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probably watched too much TV or too many
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movies or probably read too many romance
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novels for all you people out there but
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you probably will never felt like you
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did too much to help your nation get
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back on the right
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track yeah also I think I have a pretty
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good track record for doing things that
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actually make a difference
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so you won't be wasting your time I I
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don't try to do too much or underrate
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how much I can get done I have a uh I
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generally have a am pretty able to
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identify the little things you can do
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that are within your means to make a big
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difference and a lasting
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difference uh there's a fine art to that
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most people don't do it very well
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they make a lot of effort most of which
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doesn't pay
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off so what I try to do is figure out
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you know first of all I always make it a
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rule that I don't try
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to consider doing things and require
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other people to do
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things okay I just focus on what I can
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do with the resources under my
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command and everyone should do the same
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when you get together in a group one of
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the first mistakes that a lot of groups
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do they St coming up with all these
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ideas for other people to
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do okay and it doesn't it never amounts
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to anything they should focus first make
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an inventory of their own
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resources you know what people do we
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have here how much time do we have how
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much money do we have what skills do we
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have and how can we make use of those
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resources that are under our control to
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make a difference now part of making a
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difference may be to get more of those
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things more people more skills more
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money and so forth but you always want
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to start with the resources that are
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under your
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control and build on that and if you do
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that then you have a chance to make a a
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big difference in the
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world so we've covered sociology and
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making a difference and I'm realizing
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it's getting late and I my social Duty
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requires that I go home and share my
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love with my husband and share a meal is
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there anything we can say to wrap it up
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this evening well that's a good way to
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wrap it up so
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