Tag: chicago catholic schools
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Memoir: Rôle-modeling (1986-94)
Being a rôle model came with my first class of students, a whole new identity outside the classroom that I’d need to embody in order to keep my job in Reagan’s America. The drug tests I had to pass and the expectation of impeccable behavior and bottomless sacrifice were implicit but persistent warnings in my…
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Memoir: Lessons learned about delivering lessons (1986-88)

Yesterday I conversed with a young teacher at the start of her first year teaching high school French, something I did many years ago, before I switched to just English. She asked, “What have you learned about how to teach adolescents? Any insights, or ‘lessons learned?’” I shook my head and told her how embarrassed…