Snapping

Shutting up is really the more interesting part of teaching. Now, I like to mouth off and tell people what to do. Don’t get me wrong. But watching the kids listen is amazing. We had a poet come in to meet some students yesterday. This guy is from where they are from. He says a […]

Roots

For eight years, I didn’t sleep in the same bed more than four nights in a row. The only thing worse than your parents having joint custody is every other kind of scheme they could try. Joint custody is capitalism for kids of divorce. Still bad, but the best we’ve some up with. Apologies to […]

Andy Rooney, How I Loved Thee…Let Me Count the Ways.

1. He was a writer who just happens to be on TV. You could see that the words were more important than the images. I mean, take a look at that office. Even my classroom (and certainly my home writing desk) look cooler than that. 2. The jowls! The wrinkles! The slouching! You got a […]

Harvest

Anything can be dangerous. Four months ago, I walked from the monastery to downtown Atchison. I had been cloistered for three days. Everything I read, and almost everything I saw and heard, was spiritual in aim. I thought I’d better put myself back in the real world a little, like you put a fish, still […]