Book Signing at Dogwood Books in Rome

If you're in the Rome area, I hope you'll join me on Saturday, April 2, from 12:00 to 2:00 for a special book signing.

During the pandemic William S. Davies, or "Bill" to those who know him well, finally published a collection of stories called Blessed Along the Way. Although they may be a little "embellished" at times, they are mostly true stories of people Bill has encountered during his approximately 40 years of ministry. A few of the stories are also about his dad's family, which immigrated to the United States from Wales in the early 1900's. If you know Billl, you know that some of the stories have humor in them, but many of them reflect on how the little known people he's met have made a lasting impact on his life. For over half a century, Bill has spent much of his time with those who may be considered nameless or called "people under the bridges." His perspective on these people is often reflected in his stories. 

Perspective is important. In Caesar's funeral oration, Mark Antony says that "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones" (Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene ii). In my writing I have always tried to reverse that. I have tried to make sure that the good that men (and women) do lives after them. In my recent novel, The Best Version of Alice, there are a number of people that did some good things that I hope will live after them. Although the book is fiction, I have dedicated it to the memory of Fernando Guzman, a young man whose life was cut short by cancer. However, Fernando did a lot to make the world a better place while he was on this earth. I won't go into all the things he did, because you can read about it in the book, but I will tell you this--he seemed to bring out the best in all those who met him.

In my interviews with those who knew him, I learned that there were countless students, parents, and school staff members who surrounded Fernando with love and admiration for his courage, and they found ways to support him as he battled osteosarcoma for the last six or seven years of his life. It is my hope that The Best Version of Alice will make sure that the good that all these people have done will live after them and not be "interred with their bones."

If you are in Rome on Saturday, come on out to Dogwood books and join us, but if you are not in Rome, you can find both  Blessed Along the Way and  The Best Version of Alice  on Amazon.com.

 It's always exciting when it finally gets close to publication! The Best Version of Alice is no exception. What is different about this book is that it incorporates several different ideas I've been working on for a few years. 

One of them is the desire to write about all those years I taught school. I loved my years of teaching, and unlike many of my co-workers, I didn't get too caught up in the demands of administration or the "requirements" of all the paperwork that was expected. I don't mean that I didn't do it. I did. But my main job involved making sure that my students got what they needed to be successful in my area, which was language arts. So I completed the paperwork, but I didn't let it distract too much from my real work.

I had also wanted to write about my experiences in coaching students in literary events outside the classroom, particularly in debate. 

In 2018 I learned about a student who had been especially inspirational in another school. At the same time I learned that the school environment he was in demonstrated how a school can be a supportive community to all the students, regardless  of their situations.

All these situations gave me some ideas for The Best Version of Alice. 

Judge Jackson Was a High School Debater

 Recently I read an article in the New York Times about the impact high school debating had on Judge Ketanja Brown Jackson, who has been nominated by President Biden for the Supreme Court. In the article Judge Jackson was quoted as referring to her debate experience at Palmetto Senior High School in Miami, Florida, as being "the one activity that best prepared me for future success in law and in life." The article indicates that the experience of debating offers a glimpse into how Jackson eventually became a Supreme Court nominee. In The Best Version of Alice, my novel that will be released soon, the central characters are on the debate team in their high school. In previous posts I've talked about debate and what students can learn through debate, and this article confirms my belief about the impact it can have on their success.

In my new novel, it is clear that debate is having an impact on the skills students are learning that will follow them into their adult lives. In Alice's case she is learning to become more confident and able to speak out when she needs to, but the students are all also learning to work together as a team and support one another. When I read about Judge Jackson, I realized that she is a great example of how high school experiences can have a lasting impact on the student's life. If you'd like to read the article about Judge Jackson, here is a link to it:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/26/us/ketanji-brown-jackson-high-school-debate.html?smid=em-share

Learning by Doing

 

In The Best Version of Alice, the main characters are high school debaters.  Students learn from debate in a variety of ways. They learn to work with a team, write a convincing argument, and present it in a confident, compelling way. It takes practice to become a good debater, but most people learn by doing. Coaching debate allowed me to watch students as they grew in their ability to construct effective debate briefs and present them confidently. They also learned to listen attentively to the opposition and respond appropriately. Traveling to and from debate tournaments as well as other literary events allowed me to get to know students in a more personal manner. Those students are often the ones I've kept up with after they graduate.

I enjoyed  going through a box of pictures recently from my years of teaching at Armuchee High School, and I thought my readers might enjoy them too.  Students don't just learn from listening to teachers from 8 to 3 each day. They learn from finding information and presenting it to one another; they learn from acting out plays they study in literature; they learn by tutoring children in a mobile home park in their community; they learn from competitions like Mock Trial, Debate, and Academic Decathlon; they learn from going on field trips to Washington, D.C, Renaissance Festivals (in costume),  Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in North Carolina,  Tybee Island (where they hold a snake); they learn by creating a brochure  and a handbook to outline how their school creates a recycling program; they learn by going to yearbook camps in the summer before they work on the school yearbook.

Writers Write What They Know

 

High School Debate, Part 2

 

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I coached high school debate for several years during my teaching career. I taught in a school where the football team was much better known than the debate team. It wasn’t always more successful, but it was much better known and loved. Most of the students had little idea what our team did on those weekends we were gone to tournaments. One day one of my debaters said she was stopped on her way to practice by a friend, who asked, “What do you do in debate, just pick a topic and fuss about it?” Despite the fact that many students have little understanding about the activity, debate is one of the most challenging extra-curricular events a school can provide. 

 

Since the main characters in my upcoming novel are debaters, I thought it would be helpful to my readers to provide a little information in this post about high school debate. I am providing links to a few videos that might give you an idea of what it’s like to debate in high school. The first link is to a video on the National Speech and Debate Association website entitled “Feel the Energy at Nationals.” Here is the link: https://www.speechanddebate.org/nationals/. It reminded me of the first time I took my students to a debate tournament. Never having gone to a tournament before, I was amazed by the energy in the high school cafeteria as several hundred students were entering with their vast array of what looked like luggage, filled with evidence ready to be used to build their arguments. 

 

Students debate in various formats, but at the time I was coaching, my students usually used what is called policy debate. I couldn’t find any recordings of policy debate, but I found two interesting championship debates in the Lincoln Douglas format for 2021 and 2020. They were sponsored by a law firm in Cleveland () for schools in that area and they are both topics of current interest.  The most recent one for 2021 is concerning Universal Childcare: https://youtu.be/0lcF40tX-Y8.  The second one is from Cleveland also and it is on the topic of Predictive Policing:  https://youtu.be/brBaC_7GfK8. If you are one of those people who have not heard high school students debate, you might want to check one or both these videos out. I think you will be impressed with these students, both with their skill and with the “civility” with which they conduct their arguments. Maybe we need to send them to Washington!

Angie Thomas: The Hate U Give

 One thing I’ve learned as a writer is that we have to write what we know. Sometimes we can know things at a certain level through research, but often we just have to live it. My new novel is about a young girl who struggles with shyness and a lack of self-confidence, and her challenge was to gain the confidence she needed to stand up for a friend who was being abused. When I read Thomas’ novel The Hate U Give, I realized that in many ways the novel dealt with that same issue, yet I never could have written that novel. Thomas was able to write it because she had lived similar events to those in the novel. That’s why her novel is so important. 

 

Unfortunately, most of us grew up in a time when people like Angie Thomas were not given the opportunity to write and publish stories like these, so we only knew stories of people like ourselves. I will be forever grateful for writers who can enlighten me on how it is for those who did not experience life as I did. That’s progress. 

 

While I wrote a story which I believe will resonate with some young people, I realize that no one story will seem realistic to everyone. Like Starr in The Hate U Give, my novel portrays a young girl who has loving, supportive parents, but Alice is not a member of a minority in her school. I could not write that because I’ve never experienced it. Many other differences in the stories make it important that students have a variety of ways to look at similar struggles in their lives. 

 

Whether or not you’ve read her novel, I found an interesting interview with Angie Thomas that I thought you might like to listen to:  https://youtu.be/0FdvODgvISg . 

 

 

 

Peace, Love, and Slam Poetry

(This is a repeat of a post I wrote a few years ago, but I decided to repost it because I thought it fit in well with this month's posts.) 

Who wants peace, understanding, or love? Apparently very few people, according to my limited research. Don’t get me wrong-- I’m not doing a doctoral dissertation or anything. But I have noticed that when I post anything that implies that we might need to rethink something in order to accommodate some other group or way of thinking, I get fewer “likes,” on Facebook, and often a good many “Yes, but…” responses. I have also noticed that many people seem to think they have to be “against” someone or some group. What happened to the idea that it’s okay just to allow people to be themselves and love them anyway? Another thing I’ve noticed is that this is not true as much on Twitter, which tends to get more of the younger generation. I believe that we are raising up a much more compassionate generation. That is encouraging.

Anyway, I am posting links below to a young eighth grader’s entry in a slam poetry contest,  followed by an interview with the young man who wrote the poem. The responses to the poem have been varied, but some that I have noticed zeroed in on a couple of “bad words” in the poem, overlooking its message entirely. Personally, I think the interview shows him to be a very insightful young man. You don’t have to agree, and you don’t have to respond—unless you want to, of course. I just wanted to share these examples. Now remember that this is a fourteen year-old boy. He may have gotten a few things wrong. I saw some comments that indicated  he did.  But he is honestly admitting that because he is a young white boy, he has some advantages that everyone should have. Many adults don’t want to admit that. 

Royce Mann, “White Boy Privilege” -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4Q1jZ-LOT0

Interview with Royce Mann--  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oWiIX3tlCc

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When My Neighborhood Is Different From Yours

 

 

I’ve read several YA books in the last couple of years, due to the fact that my next novel falls into that category. Agents and publishers all want what they call “comps,” or books that might be comparable to the manuscript you are submitting. Most of them are good books that I’ve often passed along to some young people I know. 

 

This week I read another YA book that I think relates well to what I’m trying to communicate both in this blog and in my next book. The book is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Thomas tells the story of Starr Carter, a young African American teenager living in a poor black neighborhood. The people in the fancy suburban prep school she attends have no idea what her life is like outside school. Thomas grew up in a similar neighborhood as her central character did, so she can portray Starr realistically. 

Most of us as teachers, principals, and other administrators know little of what happens in the lives of many of our students. Books like The Hate U Give help us to get a glimpse of the many different situations our students face. The central character faces the same challenges all teens face, but she faces them in the context of specific situations that many of us have never experienced. Thomas depicts them with humor, love, and compassion for the family that is trying so hard to make life better in the future. It is important that the school community be able to help young people navigate their teen years, regardless of where they live or the families that nourish them. 

 

All Hands on Deck

                                           

 

 

“All hands on deck” is an expression we often use to call people to action in an emergency. When people are in a crisis, they need a supportive community to meet a variety of needs. In my next novel, we have some situations in which students need the support of parents,  students and school staff. Often schools do not offer help to those who need it, but when they do, it makes a great impact. When I think back over my thirty-one years of teaching, I realize the many opportunities I had to impact lives. 

 

It’s difficult to estimate how many students I’ve taught for several reasons. Some students were in my classes several times during their four years, and others only once. Some years I taught five classes a day, and sometimes only three or four. A few courses were year long classes, but most were one semester. Classes ranged in number from 15 to 35. So, I would estimate there were between 4 and 5,000 students that I taught!? Anyway, that’s a lot of opportunities to make an impact.

 

Over the last six months, I’ve had three students (who are now adults, of course) to say I was their favorite teacher. That was very encouraging, until I realized how many students came through my classes. I always said that “Students are just people and they want to be treated the same way I want to be treated.” I hope that my attitude came through, but I’m sure it didn’t always do so. 

 

I was fortunate to have good principals during my teaching career. One of the best of them always reminded us that we were all there to help the students be the best they could be. She gave teachers a lot of opportunity to make decisions, always including them in interviewing prospective teachers in their departments and planning who would teach what the next semester. However, she was always quick to remind us that we were there to help the students. We were on the “front lines” of the process. If we were discussing our teaching assignments and someone said that they didn’t want to teach something or wanted an assignment, she would often stop us and say, “Wait a minute, what is best for the students?”

 

The school community is made up of students, parents, teachers, coaches, counselors, and administrators. Each one is of great importance in creating a community that is supportive in helping young people develop into the kind of adults they have the potential to be. When one succeeds or fails to be that support, it impacts the whole community.

 

High School Debate

 Learning Through the High School Debate Program

 

During my thirty-one years of teaching high school English, I spent many of them coaching various literary events. The one I enjoyed and appreciated most was coaching the debate team. I found that high school debate teaches students in at least three important ways.

 

First, debate teaches students teamwork in much the same way that sports activities do. In fact, the kind of teamwork that is learned in debate may be more applicable to an individual’s life than teamwork learned in sports because it involves communication in a direct way. In debate, students may be working with one or more people in a very direct way, and they will work with several people indirectly. Usually, students will have a partner with whom they must plan their strategies during the preparation of their case and practice supporting one another as they deliver their arguments during practice sessions. In addition, there are also opportunities to support the other teams representing the school in their efforts to polish their cases and share resources. Debaters learn that when they help others, it makes the whole school look better.

 

Second, debaters learn to structure their arguments in a way that is easy to follow and to use clear and concise wording. Their delivery is carefully timed to meet requirements. If they go over time they are stopped. Debaters learn good organization of their thoughts, and they learn to present their cases in a convincing way. 

 

Third, debate teaches students to evaluate evidence they find as they prepare to debate. This is a skill that is much needed in these days when we have access to so much bogus information.  Debaters follow strict guidelines for seeking information, and their opponents are quick to point out questionable sources. They learn early that they must select sources that are reliable and up-to-date.

 

I have kept up with a number of former debaters, and most of them say that their participation in high school debate has helped them both in college and in their work afterwards.

Communities That Nourish Our Growth

 

Today I want to follow up a little on something I said in last week’s blog. We sometimes assume that an introverted person is shy or does not have confidence, and that extroverts are confident. That is not necessarily the case. The introverts may prefer to stay home rather than go to a social event, and they may prefer to talk to one or two people at an event rather than try to interact with a large group. Likewise, an extrovert may prefer to go to a gathering rather than stay home and read a book. Being an introvert or an extrovert is just the way we interact and the way we refresh and renew. It has little to do with our well-being, and in most cases it does not interfere with our ability to be successful. There are a number of things both physical and psychological that may cause us to be shy, lack confidence, or struggle with our responsibilities. We may need help from friends, family, or even a professional to help us navigate our duties. I taught school for thirty-one years, and I found that most of the students were able to grow into strong young adults, but sometimes that’s not the case. 

 

Having said all the above, I believe that the school community can, along with family and other institutions, contribute greatly to a young person’s growth and happiness. In my next novel, there are many examples of how friends, peers, teachers, parents, and counselors help one another to build a caring community. I hope that you are in a supportive, encouraging community that helps you grow.

Happy New Year! (2022)

 Hello, friends! It's been a while since I've added a blog post, so you may have thought I'd quit. I haven't, but like most of you, I've been trying to survive without getting COVID-19, and I have been writing of course. You'll be seeing more posting from me in the near future. I have a new book coming out in 2022! I'll be telling you more about it in future posts, but for now I'll just say that it features a high school debate team, but it isn't all about debate. It IS about high school students and their joys and sorrows. I hope you'll plan to tune in to my blog posts. My first one about the book will be posted next week. Meanwhile, I wish you a happy New Year, and I hope you are able to avoid COVID!