Greedy Breastfeeding Mothers Featured on NPR

I whipped up this letter in response to a really terrible NPR piece on breast pumps.

Dear Mr. Siegel and Ms. Chace,
I'm amazed that this piece was deemed good enough to air on NPR.  You portray breastfeeding mothers as greedy people trying to get a luxury good for free.  Your economist's opinions were promoted over actual information by breastfeeding and health experts.
 "CHACE: But our economist, Katherine Baicker, isn't so sure that eliminating the cost of the breast pumps really induces much extra breastfeeding. Rather, she thinks most of the money spent will go towards people who would have been breastfeeding anyway."
What is the evidence she has for this?
"BAICKER: So the question is whether the value that those people get from the breast pumps is worth the cost in terms of increased health spending and increased premiums."
Actually, that's not the question.  The question is, is a breastpump, which allows a mother to give her baby the healthiest food possible, full of antibodies and cancer-fighting cells, as important as other aspects of the baby’s medical care?  Of course it is.

Studying Early Man's Cave Art AKA Cured Meat

My students thought this was the famous "red disc" 40,000 year old cave art.
I said, "Uh, guys, that's SALAMI."
Them: "What? Oh.  I thought it looked a little weird."
Then I told them to add the slide to their Powerpoint presentation to the class and see if the class figured it out.  Of course, the class missed it, because that's just how sixth graders work.  In the fall, they are still very literal.  If you show them a slice of salami photoshopped on a wall and tell them it's cave art, they will believe you.  They will also believe way weirder stuff than that.  That's why teaching sixth grade is so fun.