What a thoughtful essay, and how lucky the kids in your classes (even if they don’t yet know it). To me, in the past it was cigarettes. I remember restaurants thick with haze. Now, it’s only the ex-addicts and stress junkies who smoke. Tomorrow - I hope it will be smart phones that we do without. I think they have made us dumber, less social, and more easily distracted. Almost impossible to imagine, huh?