In an article that I saw on Facebook a former teacher turned administrator spoke of spending a day shadowing a student and taking part in all of the activities including doing labs, taking tests, and completing the homework. She found that this little exercise was a defining moment for her. Suddenly, by walking in the students’ shoes, she had a fairly good idea of what their school days were really like. Sadly her analysis was not particularly favorable toward the routine of classrooms.
The educator learned that during much of the day students spend inordinate amounts of time sitting and being urged to stay quiet. She found herself wanting to get up and stretch and the instinct to yawn was quite difficult to overcome. By the end of her experiment she was more exhausted than she ever imagined she might be but there was no rest for her weary mind because she still had hours of homework to do. All in all she developed a whole new attitude about the life of a student and wondered if we all too often expect behaviors from our young that we ourselves would not want to endure. Continue reading “Changing Places”
Many years ago I was working at Paul Revere Middle School when I had the pleasure of interviewing a young man who was seeking a position as an English teacher. There was something magical about Bob Buley that game across during the interview. He had a twinkle in his eyes and an enthusiasm about life and people that made him enchanting. To say that I was quite taken with him would be to underestimate my strong desire to hire him on the spot. I was quite pleased to learn that the principal was in total agreement with me. We both viewed Bob as being someone who would be passionate and warm in his approach to teaching and it took little time for us to learn that we had indeed been right in our initial assessment of this young educator. 
As we grow older we often romanticize our youth. This doesn’t just happen with those of us who are sixty something, even adults as young as thirty or forty are often guilty of viewing the newest generation as being far less industrious than ours was in “the old days.” We all know the kind of thinking to which I am referring, “When I was a kid we had it hard! We got up at the crack of dawn and walked a mile to school in the snow, uphill, both ways! Kids today are spoiled!”
My recent journey has been about family, history, roots. It is only fitting that I would find myself standing in the middle of Notre Dame University in the middle of my travels because almost fifty years ago I made a personal decision about that place that would alter the direction of my life. As I have visited the locales where my ancestors once lived and worked I have reflected on the choices that they made that eventually led to me and my brothers. At Purdue University I thought of all of the forces of the universe that gave me my grandson, Andrew, and then brought him back to the place of his birth. Each of us has a rather amazing story if one really thinks about it. From the very beginnings of time the world has been moving toward the destinies that we call our lives. 
All It Takes Is A Little Love 