My name is #$#%@&^, and I am a mechanical turk. I work in what might best be described as an academic gulag, a place where the academic world sends those it doesn’t really want. The students here are nice kids, and a few are pretty smart,but most have been so poorly served by the educational system that they are beyond repair. Increasingly, our efforts and shrinking resources are spent on the least well-prepared to bring them close to mediocrity, at the expense of those who might actually accomplish something. There are no facilities, no funding, and little chance for escape.I turk in order to avoid thinking about the hopelessness of my situation.