Making Historical Fiction Readable

     Often, readers avoid historical fiction because they say they get “bogged down” in all the details. I understand that because I, too, have decided not to read a book when it seemed overloaded with historical details. That’s why as a writer, I’ve tried to avoid getting too excited about all the things I learn in doing my research to write a novel in which the action takes place long ago.  I want to share a few ways that I’ve learned to avoid dumping too much history into my historical novels. 

     First of all, I’ve learned that it works better if I have the plot worked out before I write the first draft. That way I know what parts of my research will be important. In Becoming Jestina, although the story took place during WWII, I didn’t need to focus too much on the war because my main character was much more focused on her work as a welder in the Shipyard in Savannah, Georgia. However, when she and her mother or sister listened to the news on the radio, I needed to know what would have been news during that time. 

     Second, I’ve learned that I need to build a believable world for my readers. While it is true that novelists don’t need to beat the reader over the head with a history lesson, it is important to create a world that is true to how characters would have thought, what they had to do, and where they would have gone and how they would have travelled

. 

      The third thing I’ve learned is that if my character is based on an actual person, what he does and says should always reflect the character and personality of the actual person. It doesn’t have to be something that they actually said or did, because it is fiction.

 

       Basically, when writing historical fiction, I have learned to create scenes that would have been possible given what was available at the time and likely given the kind of character and personality of the actual person I’m writing about. 

The Truth About Katie

     When I look for a book on the shelf in a bookstore, I often pay attention to both title and the general looks of the cover. I think I was lucky when I published The Truth About Katie because my publisher actually let me choose the cover photo from a website she subscribed to, and I found the one for the book. But even before that I chose the title, not from a quote, but just  because of the situation. My character had disappeared, leaving her husband and family. They had not heard from her for a couple of years, but then she showed back up and reunited with her family. As you can imagine, she was not well-received by some of her neighbors. But the reader soon learns that even she is questioning why she “panicked” and ran away from home. The reader is taken on a journey with her to investigate her past and learn why it happened. The title makes the reader curious, and the cover adds to the mystery and fits in well with what the character learns about her past. 

    Sometimes all we know about a book is its title. Recently someone gave me a book title and said, "I'm not sure who the author is," but it's a good book. Sometimes a title helps the reader to become interested. As writers, it's always important to give a lot of thought to the choosing of a title. When I mention The Truth About Katie, people almost always want to know more, and I consider that a good thing.

The Title May Be Important

     Since I spoke of the title of one of my books in the last blog post, I wanted to follow up regarding titles of books and poems. For a long time, I’ve been fascinated by titles. When I started writing novels, I realized again how important a title can be. 

    In my next few blog posts, I would like to share with you my reasons for selecting the titles of my novels. Let’s just begin with my first novel, The Welsh Harp. Now you may be thinking, “Well, now there’s nothing complicated (or even important) about that title.” And you may be right, but I chose that name for a reason. As I’ve told many of my readers, this story is based on a history my husband Bill’s aunt wrote about their family’s journey from Wales to the U.S. in the early 1900’s. I didn’t meet his aunt until the 1960’s, when I started dating Bill. I went to her house often, and there was a harp (a photograph of it is on the cover of the novel) sitting in the corner of her living room. I don’t remember her ever talking about it, and as far as I know, she never played it, but she was an accomplished musician and taught piano to many children in the little town where she lived. 

    According to her history, she was a young girl, maybe eleven or twelve when the family came to live in Southeastern Kentucky and the dad and sons worked in the coal mines for several years. They had been coal miners in Wales and thought the mines in the U. S. were safer. Anyway, when I decided to write the novel, I decided to make the young girl the main character in the story. The harp was the perfect item to stand as a symbol for what the girl wanted to do. She wanted to learn to play the harp. 

Our Pebble in the Pond

 

    One of my best books is often overlooked, and I’m not sure why, but maybe it’s because it features homeless people as characters. The title, Our Pebble in the Pond, is based on a quote by an American journalist and social activist, Dorothy Day, which impressed me, but may not reflect the thoughts and feelings of some of my readers. It is quoted in the front of the book, but I’ll provide it here: “What we would like to do is change the world—make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended for them to do. And, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, of the poor, of the destitute...we can, too a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever-widening circle will reach around the world. We repeat, there is nothing that we can do but love, and dear God, please enlarge out hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as well as our friend.”

    When I was writing the book, I came upon Dorothy Day's quote and realized that it reflected so much of what I’d learned as I’ve interacted with people in the homeless shelter that was named for my husband in 2003 (William S. Davies Shelters in Rome, Georgia. While the situation in my book is completely fiction, it reflects some of the things I’ve learned about homeless people and the way we tend to think of them.

    If you get a chance, and haven’t read Our Pebble in the Pond, I encourage you to read it, and let me know what you think! If you live in Rome, it is available at Dogwood Books and Georgia's Rome Gift Shop. Otherwise, you can find it on Amazon.

A Bit of Flash Fiction

 

Trying her best not to look homeless, Jessica made her way down the street past several stores. It was early enough in the morning that no one saw her come out of the alley where she had slept. She thought the nice woman had given her enough money yesterday to buy her breakfast at the little place three blocks from where she’d slept. If she could just get a good breakfast maybe she would have the energy to go for another interview today. She might even be able to get a job at one of the stores which were on the next block. She knew the clothing store was out because she looked too bad, but maybe they would hire her at the hardware store or the pet store on down the street. She’d even take a job cleaning up one of the stores if they’d hire her.

Soon she saw the little place where she planned to eat breakfast. She noticed that several people were standing outside the place. What was going on? As she got closer, she realized there was a long line waiting to get in. They must have really good food. As she got in line, some of the people seemed to move away from her, making her think she may have smelled from not having a bath lately. The line moved slowly, but finally they got in the door. Smells of delicious eggs and bacon were evident inside the little restaurant. People were talking to one another now, asking what they were getting to eat. After what seemed like another half hour, she was at the counter ready to order. “What would you like?” asked the lady at the counter. She looked up at the menu and realized that there was no item that the five dollar bill in her hand would buy. “Oh, I don’t believe I need anything this morning,” said Jessica as she turned away. Just as she turned around an older looking woman in the line behind her looked up at her and handed her a five dollar bill. "Here honey," she said. "Why don't you and I have breakfast together?"

 

World Building Is for Me, Too!

 

Most of the time when I see “World Building” as a break-out session at a writing conference, I assume it is designed for the science fiction or fantasy writers, and for the most part I may be right. However, world-building is often also important for literary fiction writers, especially if they’re writing historical fiction. First of all, it helps if writers of historical fiction understand that their readers don’t want a course in the history of a period in time, but they do want the story they are reading to reflect what could have happened during that time period. It’s important to focus the research for the story on what would have been possible at that time. Since we often become so accustomed to our own period in time, it’s easy to over look some things. I can think of two examples in my last novel where I overlooked this fact.

            Fortunately, the first one was identified early by one of my readers. I had one of my characters make a phone call on his way home from the western part of the U.S. in the mid-1930’s. One of my readers said, “I don’t think his family would have had a phone at that time.” It didn’t take me long to determine that she was right, so I made a change in what he did.                              Another example, in the same novel, was identified after publication. Although most readers would overlook it, as I did, there’s always one or two. After reading the book, my brother-in-law said, “I found a mistake in the book. You said the character bought a 1929 model of a car that they had already stopped making by then. Now, I could have easily avoided that mistake by just saying he drove that model of car, which would have solved the problem, but I didn’t! Research can be helpful, but thankfully, writers only have to research what they actually include in their descriptions. Often, it’s easy to avoid errors with a slight altering of what is said. It is important, however, to do your research and build a world where your events could have happened.

Take Me Back to Tulsa

     

When I was a kid, I learned that, when he was in his early 20’s, my dad had disappeared for seven years, and over time I realized that he’d spent most of that time in Tulsa, Oklahoma. So, when I decided to write a novel inspired by his life, I knew I’d have to make a trip to Tulsa. Before that, I spent time researching Tulsa on the internet and talking with various historians in the area in order to formulate an itinerary for my trip. 

            On one occasion, when I told a lady at the Tulsa Historical Society Museum that my dad had always talked about seeing Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys in person, she said, “Oh yes, Cain’s Ballroom. That place is still going.” And so it was. It still looks much like it did in the 1930’s too!

When Bill and I went to Tulsa we met some friends and attended a show. We also bought a book at their office—Twentieth-Century Honky-Tonk, by John Wooley & Brett Bingham (2020). Cain’s is often referred to as “the Carnegie Hall of Western Swing,” and our visit there helped me understand a lot about why my dad said (and did) the things he did when a Bob Wills song came on the radio. If you’re unfamiliar with Bob Wills, go to YouTube and hear a little of his music (https://youtu.be/uUPrVzNb8_g).

 CAIN'S BALLROOM

https://www.cainsballroom.com/

Tulsa in the 1930’s

    In my upcoming novel, Tulsa Times, Jonny, my central character, spends 1929-1936 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At first Tulsa didn’t seem to be affected much at all by the Depression that was ripping through the rest of the country, but as time went on it was evidenced by the long soup lines in front of the hospital where Jonny worked.

     Jonny was concerned about the young children he saw. They looked “hollow-eyed” and sad to him. Because he had young brothers back home in Kentucky, he couldn’t help wanting to help them in some way. He often bought shoes for them in the winter and bought them ice cream during the summer months. This experience made a great impact on Jonny in future years. 

     In doing research for the novel, I learned a lot about what was called the “Dust Bowl” in the 1930’s. I had, of course, read about the dust storms during this time in books like The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, but I had not read much about how it affected Tulsa. What I’d read seemed to indicate that Oklahoma was mostly affected out in the Panhandle area, so I had not anticipated that it had been a problem in Tulsa. However, in doing my research, I learned that the storms were indeed a problem in Tulsa, especially in 1935. You can learn more about the Dust Bowl here: https://drought.unl.edu/dustbowl/ .

Reading Historical Fiction: Is This Story Really True?

 

    As I anticipate the release of Tulsa Times, I am reminded of the questions I often get regarding my other two historical novels (The Welsh Harp and Becoming Jestina), both of which were inspired by real events in an earlier time. People who know a little about the real events surrounding a novel called “historical fiction” often wonder which events and conversations are factual and which are not. I thought it might be helpful to my readers to know how I view my task as a writer.

 

    As an overall understanding, if it’s called a novel, it’s fiction. That means that much of what happens will be created by the author to further the storyline. You know that scenes and conversations are not limited to what was actually said and done. That being said, it takes a lot of research to write historical fiction. The following paragraphs give you some of the particular guidelines I follow in writing my historical novels.

 

    First, as a general rule, I try to create scenes that could have happened. For example, if my character goes shopping in town, I make sure that the store in which she or he shops was actually on that street at that time, or if I say that she was walking down a certain street and the sun was in her eyes, I make sure the sun shines in that direction at that time. It often takes lots of research to determine what could have happened. 

 

    Secondly, if a character based on a real person, I try to have him/her do and say things that stay true to the person’s character. In some cases that is a challenge because I may not know the character as well as others, but I know that if I get it wrong, some reader out there will say that “he would never have done that.”

 

     Third, and probably the most difficult, I try to think about the general attitudes of the time in which my story takes place. Attitudes that we accept as normal today may be very different than those in the early 1900s (The Welsh Harp) or in the 1940’s (Becoming Jestina). One of the things I struggled with in writing Tulsa Times was the prevailing attitudes towards divorce, which were very different from those in the twenty-first century.

 

    The fourth, and the most obvious guideline I follow is that any well-known historical event must be reflected in the right time period. For example, in writing Becoming Jestina, I had to know the dates of different battles in World War II (which took some work on my part!).  Whether it was what the characters heard on the radio, or exactly what they were doing when they heard that the war was over, I tried to make it an accurate reflection of the real events.

 

    This gives you a picture of how I view my task as a writer of historical fiction. I think each author approaches the subject differently, so not all writers may agree with me.

Inspiration for New Novel

Most educators and child psychologists tell us that early childhood experiences are a big factor in the well-being of children. Basically, what this means is that children are better equipped to face the world if they feel loved and safe during those years. 

Masten and Gewirtz concluded that “Resilience research indicates that during the early childhood years, it is important for children to have good quality of care and opportunities for learning, adequate nutrition and community support for families, to facilitate positive development of cognitive, social and self-regulation skills.” (“Resilience in Development: The Importance of Early Childhood”, Masten & Gewirtz, University of Minnesota, USA, pub. Online March 15, 2006). Other research supports this also 

(https://www.ncdhhs.gov/about/department-initiatives/early-childhood/why-early-childhood-matters).

 

I grew up in a rural area of Kentucky. In looking back, I guess we were rather poor. My parents had little education, and my dad always worked at minimum-wage jobs. But I thought my life was great. I never missed a meal, and I knew both my parents loved me. My sister (one year older) and I were best friends and grew up somewhat like twins. Although my dad often worked out of town during the week, he was usually home on weekends, when we’d go to church together.

As I have grown older, I have realized that my dad was a great inspiration to me as a young child and adolescent. I think that one of the reasons he was the kind of person he was involved the fact that as a young man he disappeared for seven years and was declared dead. He wasn’t of course, and when he returned to Kentucky in 1936, he was lucky enough to meet my mom and become a family man. My novel, Tulsa Times , scheduled for release later this year, attempts to show how those seven years he was missing shaped his young life and made him into the father he became to me. In the coming weeks, blog posts will center around some of the facts I’ve learned about those years.

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.