DaleHogue

I'm a retired teacher. From 1954 through 1996, at different times during these 42 years, I taught many high school courses in English, American Literature, speech, drama and the history of the United States. Part of this time I taught classes in junior high school and elementary school.

I taught students of every stripe: good students who wanted to learn, so they were hard workers, and average students who learned when I pushed the right buttons that got them interested in what was being taught; and I taught poor students who sat in class with closed minds.

I liked them all, some a bit more than others, but I gave all of them the same opportunity to learn. Some of my former students became policmen, and policewomen, lawyers, nurses, doctors, actors, ministers and teachers. Some became caprenters, mechanics, plumbers and painters; some became clerks in their own stores, hair dressers and barbers who owned their own shops. Above all those job descriptions, most of my students turned out to be good American citizens who believe in themsleves and in their country.

Many of these students still keep in touch with me via email. Some visit me in person and we have long conversations about what is going in their lives.

I'm a poet and a writer of short stories and essays. I left that part of my life until this point in my introductory post, so I wouldn't appear to be pushing my intellectual products to center stage.