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Month: October 2016

Jose and the long road

Recently, Jose went into the hospital. He had to have a surgery to find the source of an ongoing and debilitating pain in or around his stomach. As I understand it, doctors operated on him several times for the same pain over the course of the last two years. In…

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Father and son talk politics

Nick and I walked the dogs the other day and talked about politics. The election season is so pervasive that it seeps into the life of a 14 year old. Who would I vote for? he asked. I turned to him. The dogs pulled at the leashes. There was a…

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And the award goes to . . . Patrick Dobson

When Corby Skinner announced that Canoeing the Great Plains won the creative nonfiction category in the High Plains Book Awards, I felt a sudden lift. I looked around and people were applauding. The sounds came through tinny and indistinct. Someone hooted. People smiled. Someone patted me on the back. The…

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Grades: Just put your head down and grind it out

As a teacher, I sweat over student grades. It matters. Those grades become a permanent part of a student’s life. When my students go on to college or university—and I hope they do—the admissions people won’t be looking at what kind of people they are. Certainly, many colleges and universities…

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