The Tryouts
The Little League team was good. Really good. The nine mop-haired, lanky boys, clad in classic ‘70s harvest-gold uniforms, were undefeated this season. They had a shot at the pennant. But then, devastation.
Children
Some Kinda Kindness
The mid-80s. Detroit. The boy didn’t have much. He was one of those teens most people won’t notice. Each day, he walked to and from school with a ratty backpack on his shoulders, containing a pitiful lunch he made himself, since he had no mother to prepare meals.
A Knitting Story
One day, a little girl visited the old woman’s house and asked for knitting lessons. The old woman was thrilled, of course. But the little girl was exponentially more excited—the child looked like she was going to detonate right there on the woman’s doorstep.
Be It Ever So Humble
The old man answered every persistent question with patience. Then, the conversation took a turn toward the philosophical. It is a well-known fact that 8-year-olds are philosophers.
Dear God
Hi, God, It’s me again. I know it’s been a while since my last prayer, so I don’t blame you if you choose not to listen to a hopeless fool like me.
Breaking the Cycle in Education
When I retired in 2017 and finally got settled back in Michigan around 2019, I decided to try something new — teaching. I earned my interim certificate and took a job in what turned out to be one of the poorest counties in the state, measured by home values and income. You could see the poverty in the houses, the roads, and, more than anything, the expectations kids had for themselves.
The Little Girl and the Gardener
The following is a true story. The little girl was walking with her mother. They were taking a stroll through the hospital garden, bathed in the dappled sunlight of early afternoon, looking at all the flowers in bloom.
Don’t Ever Grow Up
Dear Kid,
Don’t grow up. Don’t turn into an adult. That’s my advice. Resist adulthood. Be a kid forever.
Right now, a lot of adults are angry in America. To be fair, we have a lot to be angry about. But adults can behave badly when they are angry. So please forgive us.
The Story of Me
I sort of raised myself. My dad died when I was a kid. He died by suicide, shortly after he’d been released from county lockup on bail. His death was dramatic. It made the papers. On his final night, he almost took my mother to the grave with him.
Hybrid Homeschool. The Pythagorean Theorem Won’t Help You at the Gas Pump
The system brags about meeting “state standards,” but half those standards were written by people who couldn’t change a tire, much less balance a budget. So we end up with teenagers who can solve for x but can’t make change for a $20.
Mikie Sherrill Hedberg Believes You Can’t Handle the Truth . . . or You Might Not Vote for Her!
Remember the kerfuffle over former Vice President Kamala Harris Emhoff’s admission that she considered then-Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg as her running mate, but decided against it because he is openly homosexual? Mr Buttigieg admitted to being “surprised” to read that. The divergence comes as their party is grappling with its approach to diversity, as …
My Little School
It was late. I pulled into the campus after seven o’clock to attend my last class of the semester. My last college class. Ever. It was a night class. In America, most self-respecting people my age were finishing supper, settling down to watch “Wheel of Fortune.” But I was in school. I had been attending …
The Boy Who Was a Chicken
Nobody could explain how it happened. But one day, Willy sort of lost his mind. Namely, because Willy walked into the kitchen and declared that he was a chicken. Not a proverbial chicken, mind you. But literal poultry. The kind that go bawk-bawk, cock-a-doodle-doo, and all such manner of clucking.
Can Someone Smarter Than Me Figure This Out, ‘Cause I Sure Can’t
We noted, on September 26th, that six schools had forfeited games against the Jurupa Valley High School’s girls’ varsity volleyball team because a mentally ill male, A B Hernandez, plays on the girls’ team. Fox News has just reported how much the real girls are sacrificing: California girls’ volleyball team with trans player sees 10th …
The Old Man and the Girl
The following is a true story. She was a kid. Maybe 5 years old. Her mom was driving, and she was in the passenger seat. They saw the older homeless man standing at the intersection, just like every day.
Lifetime Teacher
The collapse of the family, as the source for manners, civility and the desire to learn, places an undue demand on our teachers/school systems, and ultimately, the courts/police/corrections systems.
Letter to Young Me
The main reason I’m writing is because the world is going to go nuts someday. And I mean totally, flipping nuts. I can’t even describe the level of nuttiness you’re about to experience.
The Girl on the Highway
A little girl rescued a turtle from a busy highway. This happened yesterday afternoon. Moving a turtle is not a remarkable sight, really. It happens every day, somewhere in the world. Somewhere in the known universe, a rural kid moves a turtle off the highway. I have been that kid myself. Many times. Maybe you …
Morgan, Full of Grace
My friend Morgan Love is in the hospital again. I’ve lost count of how many times she’s been in the hospital. She’s slept in a hospital bed more times than any human I’ve known.
You in a heap o’ trouble, boy!
I’ve used this headline several times before, but it always seems appropriate. I will admit to some surprise, because my source, The Philadelphia Inquirer, told us more than they might have.