After An Educator's Journey
Out of the classroom & into the universe
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Once upon a time, I taught 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders. Now I’m retired and working on new ventures.
Tag: politics
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After attending rallies like yesterday’s No Kings (October 2025 version), the take-away is that there are a lot of like-minded people who are unhappy with the way things have been going. Here in Lowell, Massachusetts, a respectful crowd listened to speakers, music, and cheered and chanted. Afterwards the group wended their way from Boarding House…
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I was a high school student in the late 1960s. Education was a lot different back then, though not necessarily the “Leave-it-to-Beaver” high school experiences depicted on television. Starting with my junior year, our English classes switched up a bit from the standard fare English coursework to mini courses. I don’t know who came up…
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Spoiler alert: she was. This is my maternal Great Grandmother, Minnie Palmer Flournoy who died about a decade before I was born. I know of her from the stories told by my maternal grandfather, her son, and my mother, her granddaughter. Born around 1859 or 1860 to Missouri pioneer parents (Minnie later listed her birth…
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Senator Charles Shumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi have published their collective ideas supporting public education. Their 5-point proposal can be found in this USA Today article. I read their ideas with great interest, particularly as recent Democratic administration proposals have not been very supportive of Public Schools and the 90% of students who attend them.…
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Day four’s Meditation from the Mat really resonated with me. That is so not only because of the simple truth, but also because what happens on a daily – or is it hourly – basis in these unprecedented times calls us to do something. When legislative leaders in the United States can’t find money to fund…
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Two stories from the education world caught my attention this week, and I feel that both are worth the time to read. The first story, Why Teachers Quit by Liz Riggs, is a cautionary tale from 2013 about teachers and burn-out. The second, Silicon Valley Courts Brand-Name Teachers, Raising Ethics Issues is by Natasha Singer…
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I know that I have only one voice. But I have one, and I am determined to use it. On the four month anniversary of Sandy Hook, we are reminded that nothing has been done to prevent yet another shooting of this nature. Listen to the family members of the victims in this tragedy. They…
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I have to touch the third rail: is education today more assimilation into a one-size-fits-all or is it about reaching a baseline of standards for learning? I ask this because lately it seems that there is an underlying expectation that we plan or are given one lesson and asked to apply it to every student…
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If you listen to the pundits, the coming presidential election is boiled down to a single question: Am I better off today than I was 4 years ago? I think it’s more complicated than a “yes” or “no”. Certainly my family’s monetary worth is not better, however, I do not blame presidential policy for this.…
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Thank goodness I reside in a state where it has been illegal to deny health care coverage for pre-existing conditions for some time (should I say “thanks” to Governor Romney?). As of a few hours ago, the Supreme Court ruled that insurers cannot discriminate for pre-exisitng conditions nation-wide. For someone like me, that is truly…
After An Educator's Journey 