e-mail address:  markthesewords@sbcglobal.net

Residence:  Hayward, CA

Life since high school:

Subsequent messages:
May, 2009

Hi, TN ‘65 gang:

Below is a relatively recent shot, taken last year of me and my wife, Judi, on a cruise to Alaska. I’m the one on the left, thinking: If it’s Tuesday, this must be Skagway-- or Juneau---or somewhere. We are both retired teachers, very much enjoying retired life. Actually, I am more retired than Judi is: I substitute teach occasionally just to keep my hand in--- while Judi, although retired from the public school classroom, travels around the world as a Montessori teacher trainer and consultant. We travel whenever we can; our most amazing trip was to the Galapagos Islands, last year, where we were able to get up close to the some of the most astonishing wildlife on the planet, much of which only exists on Galapagos. The animals there have not learned to be afraid of people, so they will often walk right up to you and flop at your feet, or they will very coolly ignore you totally when you walk up next to them----strangely reminiscent of my days in the classroom, actually, but I digress. To be truthful, I genuinely enjoyed teaching; in a thirty-three year career I taught all the grades, first through eighth, including adult education at night. I would have happily stayed longer in the profession had it not been for burnout, the chief cause of which was the arrival of the poorly-designed “No Child Left Behind” legislation and its one-size-fits-all emphasis on standardized testing, which brought with it a tremendous load of political and administrative baggage that took a good deal of the joy out of the inherently joyful act of teaching and helped me make the decision to hang it up. I look back with great warmth on my years in the classroom, and I am happy to reconnect with kids and the educational community through my occasional subbing, which allows me to do what I truly love: teach, purely and simply, without all the baggage--what a concept. I enjoy painting (acrylic on canvas, not houses) whenever I can---which is pretty often, now that I am retired. We have five grandchildren, three of whom live close by and provide a wonderful layer of depth to our life. In the past several years I have been blessed to reconnect with several of my class of ‘65 friends: Sharon (Day) Rathbun, Greg Fassler, Paul and Jean Barnhart, Alice (Fadenrecht) Hand, and the late Joyce (Reed) Giosso. The high school days seem like another lifetime now---maybe it’s because they were, you think?---and I have very much enjoyed getting to know my old buddies in this stage of our lives. It has been a profoundly interesting journey; as Monty Python says, all of it “. .part of life’s rich pageant,” and I look forward to what comes next.

PHOTOS: