11 Comments

You are so right, teachers shouldn’t have to worry about it! But it’s today’s reality I guess.

My favorite teacher was Mrs Clark. She taught literature and we loved her so much in jr high that when she moved to the high school, we were overjoyed 😄 In jr high, my memory of her was a plump, sweet lady who gave us our assignment, usually after reading us a story, and then sitting back to crochet and have her Snickers bar while we were reading. In high school, she had lost so much weight and she was so short, she looked like one of the students. All of us wanted to take her class, and when we did, she let us read -and act out- plays like Romeo and Juliet and The Diary of Anne Frank! We just adored her.

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Mrs. Clark sounds like a delight! I love that she crocheted during class, haha. That’s great! I’m sure if I attended your school I would have wanted her as a teacher as well. Thanks for sharing, Kim. 😄

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It is sad that this has become common enough in America society that we have to plan for it.

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It really is!

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You’re welcome ☺️

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I try to write more happy stuff, too, but sometimes it just doesn't happen that way. Really liked this one, Justin. It was real.

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I really appreciate that, Jim. Thank you so much!

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It's still difficult finding the right place for the students to be. Last week we had a lockdown and two of our more active students hid under a desk and were doing well until they spotted a spider....We spent a lot of time comforting the whole class about spiders and potential shooters... What a strange world.

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Sometimes the classroom dimensions don’t leave us many options! Goodness, I remember a few moments like those, Andrea. It is a strange world indeed! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that one day these drills will be history, but I’m not holding my breath.

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I’m glad you wrote and shared this powerful story.

One thing I discovered from my two high schoolers this year was how their peer groups all have rituals around lockdowns and not infrequently talk about what they’d really do in a school shooter situation. They talk about which teachers they’d trust to do the right things and how they universally mistrust the administration to tell them tue truth about anything. It was a sobering and enlightening conversation.

I think part of art making the world a better place is to share our truth as it comes up organically-even when it’s not uplifting. Sad stories are cleansing in their own way. I enjoy your work!

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Thanks for the response and the kind words, Jason!

It sounds like a sobering and important conversation, without question. It’s a topic we don’t discuss as freely in general as we probably should.

Agreed! Sometimes our truths, reality, or even perspective can be upsetting or tragic - but that’s where we get opportunities to reflect and grow as individuals and artists. Thanks again, Jason!

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