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Joshua Doležal's avatar

This fine essay reminds me of 4th grade, the most difficult year I think I ever had in school. I was failing at the end of a quarter, or whenever report cards were sent home, and we had to get a parent's signature. I forged my father's (badly). My punishment was to walk to school for a week, 3 miles down the mountain carrying my French Horn (I may have taken the bus back home). My mother confessed to me many years later that she wondered, around that time, what I would do with my life.

I'm sure this experience made you a better teacher. I'll admit to some wistfulness on that point, knowing that we both found our way into the academy against the expectations of others and then found ourselves disenchanted enough with academic culture to eventually leave it. There are other bright kids out there with untapped scholarly potential, and I'm sorry that we can't be there to mentor them in the ways that we once could. It's yet another form of representation that matters.

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Suzanna de Baca's avatar

Our obstacles can become our biggest gifts! Thank you for sharing-- and collaborating!

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