Toward the end of my time as an educator, I began co-writing educational reform commentaries, often with a former colleague, Aaron Hanscom, who is now also involved in writing as a career. Being continuously blackballed in the faculty lunchroom, shunned at meetings, having to endure looks of incredulity and disrespect from colleagues---rather than open-mindedness and introspection---suddenly engrossed my life as a teacher. It was remarkably eye-opening, and something Hanscom and I still ponder today.
Tolerance, from those who take care of our children, seemed anathema. Such calumnies truly irked me, and showed me that this profession did not seek sentient folks like me who desired improvement and innovation, instead of the status quo that has made education the only area America lags behind the rest of the world---and where we truly need "change." I quickly deduced that public education was no place for ambition or creativity.
This unfortunate situation led to a premature resignation from the profession that was once my "calling," as they say---though I'll always argue, with myriad personal anecdotes from my time as an educator, as well as the agreement of 98% of non-teachers in America, most teachers do in fact teach because it's stable and easy. At 22, fearing unemployment and not desiring extended grad school for another meaningless diploma, I fell for those enticing possibilities; though by the time I was 27, I had to move on.
However, on the positive side, my observations gave me the opportunity to assist American education's gradual rise from the doldrums it now encompasses.
Reclamation: Saving our schools starts from within was published in the spring of 2007, fewer than two years after I resigned from the educational world. As the book, as well as my writings and radio interviews often indicate,
if these ideas are accepted and enacted in any form in the future, the hundreds upon hundreds of days I spent instructing and acting as a needed father figure to low-income students from broken homes in urban Los Angeles will have been even better spent.
As writing was always my primary love, I also began penning travel pieces in 2005, eventually authoring A Year in Americana in September 2006. This book presented its readers a look at various unique locales in our nation based upon my travels to all 48 contiguous states, both before, and soon after my relocation from Southern California. In September 2006, the San Diego Coast News published a feature about me and my travel writing.
In my new life, I have combined my love of writing with my interest in America's unparalleled proud past, to serve as a Military Historian for the Indiana War Memorials Commission where I conduct their research and writing. I also deal with public relations, giving tours to schoolchildren, senior and veterans' groups three days per week at both historic properties.
After presenting my work in educational reform, I was further joyed to be named an Associate Fellow at the Sagamore Institute in June 2007. SIPR is the premiere Indiana-based institute for policy research.
I still do freelance work on several fronts, but primarily now, in addition to my full-time job and the work for Sagamore, I am a
correspondent for
Pajamas Media. Locally, I also cover events around the region as a contributor to the
Jewish Post and Opinion, and have had my writing published in the
Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis Men's Magazine and
Indianapolis Monthly Magazine.
A summary letter of explanation upon the transformation of my socio-political outlook from September of 2006 can be read
here.
Or, as Sir Winston Churchill, one of the greatest men to ever grace our earth, once opined brilliantly:
"A man who is not liberal at 20 has no heart. A man who is not conservative at 30 has no brain."
Enjoy.
