“Why are you riding a city bus to school? That’s not right! Teachers shouldn’t be riding the bus!” My seventh grade student, a very mature young man who had failed this grade at least twice, was indignant that his teacher was using public transportation. “I appreciate your concern, Charles, but I’m just fine riding the bus. My husband needs the car during the day, and this works out for us.” Two days later, Charles sat on my desk and leaned in confidentially: “I’ve got a grea

We had been waiting on the runway for almost an hour. Carrie Anne was restless to say the least, and I had about reached my limits of controlled patience traveling alone with my two-year-old. But I kept her quiet with promises of her grandparents’ lake home in just a few more hours. The air traffic controllers across the nation had been threatening to strike for several days, and I was hoping it wouldn’t happen within the next few minutes. Even so, they were making their poin

“Good night,” he gently said. I let out a terrible scream that echoed through the house. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!” “Oh, it’s not you.” I assured him. “It’s this story I’m reading… Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum.” I certainly was making a great impression on my boyfriend’s father… scaring us both with my reaction. Alone in the guest room bed, the covers pulled up to my chin, balancing the book on my knees, I was reliving the perils of the protagonis

The hot, oppressive weather was relentless… day and night… no relief. It was the summer of 1980, and the Tennessee humidity only added to the misery we were all feeling. States to the west of us had endured the heat for three months. We were thankful our agony had only lasted a few weeks. But everyone was spent. The sultry temperatures pressed down on us. We bent under the unbearable load. And then the leaves began to stir… and we turned our faces to the welcome, cool breeze.

“The alarm clock is possessed.” “Excuse me?” “I know it’s possessed. I set it every night and it never goes off in the morning. That’s why he’s always late for school.” I had heard plenty of excuses for tardiness, but this one surpassed them all. The mom was dead serious. The devil was in the clock. I wondered how this new family had found our Lutheran school and what had “possessed” them to enroll their son. I knew we had our work ahead of us, sorting through the issues this