Considering My Own Racism: The biggest lesson I learned from some of my high school students

This is the day we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. here in the United States, so it seems an appropriate time for me to get back to my racism series. I taught at a new high school in Year Five of my 23-year high school teaching career. This school was a consolidation of two …

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My Word for 2019

Many of you know by now that each new year I let a word choose me -- as suggested by the Abbey of the Arts: "give me a word" we ask – something to nourish me, challenge me, a word I can wrestle with and grow into.  The word which chooses us has the potential …

Floating to find a word for my new decade

Many of you know that each year around January 1st I choose a word for my year. I was inspired by the Abbey of the Arts and the process suggested here. A former student who has made it a practice to choose a word for her year in January asked via Facebook message if I …

At 60: Six things I’d tell my younger self

This week my life's clock will tick into a new decade. I'll be 60. No longer can I try to claim that I'm "middle aged." I'm obviously much closer to the end than the middle. So what have I learned in these 60 years? What would I tell my younger self to help make her …

Considering My Own Racism: My beginning years as a high school teacher

I left law in the summer of 1985 to become a high school English teacher. When people would ask where I was going to teach, I told them, "Rossville High." More than once I received the reply, "They have a lot of blacks there." The way that comment was delivered was a kind of judgment …

Considering My Own Racism: My Law Years

I'm continuing my chronological look at the racism in my past thoughts and reactions - and I now have arrived at my law school and assistant district attorney years. That was only five years for me. Three in law school, and two as an assistant D.A. I discovered that law just did not suit my …

One year after double knee replacement

A year ago I was finishing my week in a rehab hospital after having both my knees replaced. I thought that by now I'd be healed. I was only partially right. I don't have the excruciating pain of a year ago. But I'm also not pain-free. And I'm certainly not walking well - especially when …