It's Fall Out, Boys

I never thought I would be a teacher. I just sort of fell into it.

But I love doing what I do.

A couple semesters ago, I had a student who, at 11 years old, was an illegal immigrant. She walked, by herself, from Guatemala. She didn't start school until she was 16. By the time she was 18 in my class, she wrote and spoke nearly perfect English.

But the real joy for me was when I met her in Newport walking with her parents and I got to tell them what a great student their daughter is.

I had another student who wrote to me five years after she had taken my class. She said that she still didn't like Oedipus Rex, but figured that if I could get excited teaching it, she could get excited returning to college after five years.

I have dozens of stories like this. A vet who had been severely wounded in Iraq showed us a video he took of a battle (his gun jammed so he took the video) and a picture of six rifles planted in the ground with the helmets on top. He was their troop leader. He told the class that if his parents valued education, he never would have had his shoulder blown apart. All this was in response to illustrate the poem "We Real Cool" that had for its epigraph "Seven at the Golden Shovel." Including him, there were seven in his unit.

On 9/11, the President of the college asked us to help students deal with this. I had students who had escaped the Killing Fields. Like I needed to help them understand.

I sort of fell into teaching, but I can't imagine having done anything more rewarding.

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thank you for sharing those experiences
powerful examples of the impact you have made to those who were once strangers

so i'm curious, what distinguishes them from the recent students you seemingly bitched about?

I didn't really bitch about most students. Too many are distracted by their phones, but I crack down on phone use. (I wish we would have a ban on phones).

It's a community college, so I have many unprepared students. Some students don't want to be there but are pressured into going. Most have jobs and work too many hours to be good students. Many have just been passed along through high school and figure we will pass them, too.

I don't have many behavior problems, but other faculty do, mostly because they tolerate bad behavior right from the beginning, which gives students the right to continue throughout the semester.

Sometimes I blame myself and think I could do more. Probably I could. I've had many bad students, but most bad students are good people. It's helpful to keep that in mind.

And I think those excellent students would be excellent no matter who teaches them. I have little to do with it.

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I had a secretary out for 2 weeks because of a death in the family. It turned out that it was her boxer. 🐕

I get some of that. Overcoming the initial "I don't know what I'm doing" inertia can be tough. Takes experience to realize, most of the time, if you go down a wrong path, that's an experiment, not a failure.

You do learn from failure. Just fail better.

Fail Upwards... ^

Who cares about pronouns?

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You.

I do care about pronoun agreement. I do teach writing.

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No, it doesn't.

It puts the lotion on its skin.

Since most of us are old and remember I will ask the question since it's Nov 22.

Where were you when you heard JFK got shot?

Me? I think I was in 4th grade and heard the news at school during lunch break. At that time in my life everyone except your close friends were referred to by their last name. Someone told me Kennedy got shot. And I asked who shot her? Because you see we had a girl in our class with the last name Kennedy. But I got that sorted out quickly and realized it was the president.

Some old guy from Dallas was in the bar tonight, ordering whisky "on the rocks". Today is quite an anniversary for Dallas, I remarked, hoping to elicit a memory from somebody who was actually there. No idea what I was talking about.

Wasn't born yet; the next year. However, when cleaning out the house I grew up in, I found some old copies of our local paper from notable events.

I think JFK assassination, moon landing, a few other things like that.

re: radio in grade school. I remember every time there was a space launch in those early days of astronauts the teachers would always bring in a radio so we could all listen. Thinking back I find that pretty cool that we were being exposed to history as it happened. Not sure anything like that happens these days?

I was in 11th grade. My English teacher, Mrs. Pipp, lent me a book, saying, "Take this home and read it over the weekend."

As I was walking back to my desk, the principal came over the PA and announced that Kennedy had been shot. We were sent home a half hour later.

The book was James Agee's A Death in the Family.

The more enlightened teachers brought the radio in so we could listen to the World Series. I got to hear Koufax pitch.

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tying both of these together, i was in 11th grade and we watched the space shuttle challenger launch live during social studies class because that's what Christa McAuliffe taught. Ms. Chapman idolized her and was absolutely devastated for days afterward

We all idolize Christa McAuliffe.

and dozens of us idolized Ms Chapman..
all witnesses of history from a media cart cathode ray tube

Nov. 22, 1963 I was 3 months old and it was my parents' first wedding anniversary.

My mom said it kinda put a damper on their celebration and she held me while she watched the news coverage.

I was a year nine months in Lakewood, CA... I don't remember much, but for some reason I have distinct memories of watching the Funeral March on broadcast TV.

I learned a new word today: ensorcelled.

I just need to find a way to slip it into a conversation.

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