Life is full of incidents that teach humility, and I’ve met quite a lot of them. Being the kind of person who charges ahead with my own agenda, led by an innate curiosity and dogged determination, I often get smacked upside the head with the facts. Sometimes things are just harder than I expect; sometimesContinue reading “Eating Crow”
Tag Archives: teaching
What’s in a Name?
I once read an article advocating a minimum age requirement for getting a tattoo by comparing body art to a drunken climb up a water tower with a can of spray paint. “At seventeen, you might think it will impress your girlfriend to scrawl her name inside a heart where everyone driving by can enjoyContinue reading “What’s in a Name?”
FloCrit: Wraparound Services for Teen Families
When I started teaching high school science in Oklahoma in 2007 at the age of 55, I knew almost nothing about teaching. I’d taught Freshman Composition at a local college part time for a few semesters, but I’d never taught science, and never to pregnant or parenting teen girls. You’d think having a degree inContinue reading “FloCrit: Wraparound Services for Teen Families”
Choose Change: You never know where it’ll take you
Last year, I finished a memoir about my eight-year career as a science teacher to teen moms, called Subject to Change. My story emphasizes the human capacity for and willingness to change when unexpected things happen. Sometimes we choose change, too. When I started this Substack newsletter last year, it seemed only natural that IContinue reading “Choose Change: You never know where it’ll take you”
Diplomas and Pregnant Teens
I’ve been doing some research into issues surrounding teen pregnancy recently. I did research a couple of years ago when drafting my memoir, Subject to Change, about teaching science to teen moms. At the time, I didn’t collect specific information from most of the sources, but now that my book is nearing publication, I needContinue reading “Diplomas and Pregnant Teens”
What Now?
… after the last revision I’ve poured my energy and my passion into a memoir manuscript for the past two years—Subject to Change: What Teaching Teen Moms Taught Me. Some days, words tripped over themselves to beat other perfectly precise verbiage onto the laptop screen. Other days, words had to be forcibly pried from theContinue reading “What Now?”
Success
What is success? Maybe it’s like pornography: you know it when you see it. Unfortunately, the signs aren’t always visible, and we can’t know if a person who seems successful to us feels as though they are. For too many of us, complete satisfaction is just beyond ever-moving goalposts. We’d be a lot more contentContinue reading “Success”
Assumptions
When Zoom became our primary connection tool in 2020, I both loved and hated it. It allowed me to stay home and attend to business or communicate with others from the comfort of my home. I’m an introvert, and I don’t easily jump into large-group conversations, not because I don’t have anything to say, butContinue reading “Assumptions”
Alternatives
Public school teachers are leaving the classroom in record numbers. According to a 2022 report by the NEA, 55% of classroom teachers considered leaving the profession early. The percentage is even higher among teachers of color. This is only one of the reasons public education is in crisis in today. One response to this crisisContinue reading “Alternatives”
Janice Airhart 