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To Touch a Jackalope: A Teacher’s Story of Hope
The pages found between these two covers tell a simplistic story of renewal, a story of hope, a story that hundreds of thousands of educators the world over could tell without much effort. But this is my story.
This is a story about teaching, the most honorable of professions. It is written upon the request of students who respect their teachers and who want to honor those who have taught them. This is a story of hope, written to show teachers that they are not forgotten, in spite of today’s media blitz of negative publicity about schools, and to remind students that there are those who care about them.
To Touch a Jackalope is a recollection of thoughts, feelings and experiences that, hopefully, will touch the heart and tickle the funny bone of those who read it, spanning the years between the 1960s and the 1990s.
At a time in the history of education when so many seem to have an opinion concerning what is wrong with the system, this book presents an honest look at how the system has, in part, deteriorated, but, at the same time, it will show avenues for possible restoration of the system to help make it strong and viable once again.
At a time when educators are concerned that guns and drugs are flooding their schools, that teachers are threatened daily with bodily harm, and that mass shootings in schools are becoming commonplace, these pages are a way to let teachers know there ARE people who believe in them. There ARE people who care what happens to them.
What is written here is not new. It is not astute. It is not earth-shattering. It is, however, a reaffirmation that there are many, many excellent teachers in the classrooms today putting in valuable time and energies to let kids know they do count in today’s society. It is a presentation of failures as well as successes. It is a story that will, hopefully, make the best and the brightest want to enter the teaching profession in spite of known pitfalls.
It is time for a book to be written telling teachers it is an honorable thing to be a teacher, for, after all, it is the profession that teaches all other professions. It is a profession that inspires others to aspire to greater heights.
A flooding of memories came upon me as I put my thoughts to paper. Students I had not thought of in years projected themselves upon my memory screen and brought back smiles and tears of days I thought were forgotten. But, believe it or not, teachers don’t forget the kids they teach.
I have always told my students that at the year’s end they would have become a part of me and I would have become a part of them. It was inevitable. I never wanted to lose my childlike-faith that I, as a teacher, could have a positive impact on ALL of the kids I taught. When we, as educators, lose that faith in our students, we will fail the few we do touch. As teachers, all of us need to continually reach out and try with all of our hearts and strengths to touch the elusive and mystical “jackalope.”
This is a story about teaching, the most honorable of professions. It is written upon the request of students who respect their teachers and who want to honor those who have taught them. This is a story of hope, written to show teachers that they are not forgotten, in spite of today’s media blitz of negative publicity about schools, and to remind students that there are those who care about them.
To Touch a Jackalope is a recollection of thoughts, feelings and experiences that, hopefully, will touch the heart and tickle the funny bone of those who read it, spanning the years between the 1960s and the 1990s.
At a time in the history of education when so many seem to have an opinion concerning what is wrong with the system, this book presents an honest look at how the system has, in part, deteriorated, but, at the same time, it will show avenues for possible restoration of the system to help make it strong and viable once again.
At a time when educators are concerned that guns and drugs are flooding their schools, that teachers are threatened daily with bodily harm, and that mass shootings in schools are becoming commonplace, these pages are a way to let teachers know there ARE people who believe in them. There ARE people who care what happens to them.
What is written here is not new. It is not astute. It is not earth-shattering. It is, however, a reaffirmation that there are many, many excellent teachers in the classrooms today putting in valuable time and energies to let kids know they do count in today’s society. It is a presentation of failures as well as successes. It is a story that will, hopefully, make the best and the brightest want to enter the teaching profession in spite of known pitfalls.
It is time for a book to be written telling teachers it is an honorable thing to be a teacher, for, after all, it is the profession that teaches all other professions. It is a profession that inspires others to aspire to greater heights.
A flooding of memories came upon me as I put my thoughts to paper. Students I had not thought of in years projected themselves upon my memory screen and brought back smiles and tears of days I thought were forgotten. But, believe it or not, teachers don’t forget the kids they teach.
I have always told my students that at the year’s end they would have become a part of me and I would have become a part of them. It was inevitable. I never wanted to lose my childlike-faith that I, as a teacher, could have a positive impact on ALL of the kids I taught. When we, as educators, lose that faith in our students, we will fail the few we do touch. As teachers, all of us need to continually reach out and try with all of our hearts and strengths to touch the elusive and mystical “jackalope.”
108 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 9, 2023
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3 people want to read
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