In 1978, I got my first teaching job — at a public high school. At the conclusion of the interview, my new principal asked, “What are your qualifications for teaching anthropology?” I retorted, “I can spell it within 75 percent accuracy.” We laughed, but I was 50 percent serious and a 100 percent panicked. I was in a graduate history program at the time, and my sole training in anthro was one undergraduate course six years earlier.
