It smelled like winter and smoked meat outside as a gray curtain of clouds shimmered across the naked night sky to veil the waning moon. “You need to relax and trust the process or it won’t work” “I’m trying to, honest!” “ I didn’t say ‘try’, I said ‘trust’. That means it's a surrender of will, not the enforcing of it.” "Fine." "All things have a sentience and a will. That includes the ability to trust or not. Magic is a...

I was sitting inside at a table with a few children, and we were doing puzzles. It was so hot that we, the teachers, had made the executive decision to bring the kids inside and just chill out. We had Netflix for kids on the TV and some of the children were sitting on the mat and watching. Three of them, actually, had fallen asleep, all in the same position, all facing the same direction, funnily enough. Some of the other...

I was sitting at the messy play table, with some freshly made playdough. I had the kids helping me roll it out and add colour to it. I had the usual mini rolling pins and cookie cutters out that my helpers were using. "My Nana is picking me up today," T said excitedly. "I'm going to stay at their farm.""My mummy is picking me up today," C replied. The two besties happily chatted between themselves for a bit, talking about...

"Nice wheels." First day of wearing his new high tops.  "Glad you like 'em." He continued with the lesson the way he did each day, rather extemporaneously, but following the chapters assigned. And he felt young again for a short while. When he needs to he may pull them out of the closet, even now. To feel young again. Interesting how those All Stars have been around for a quarter of a century. Those college students are w...

I remember the day the call came in, June 21, 2013, two days after my fourth anniversary and just over three years from my last full-time work day. My husband had left the day before and was in New Mexico driving an eighteen-wheeler so we could make ends meet. I was sitting in my living room wearing my pajamas, chatting with him on the phone and having coffee. An email came in telling me that a principal had a fifth-grade...

I love rainy days. I find them romantic. How many romantic films and romantic comedies have a scene where the couple kisses or professes their love in the rain? Even my own husband proposed to me in the rain because I told him I thought kissing in the rain was romantic. Teaching elementary school almost made me hate rainy days. The kids are trapped inside all day, and often the teachers don’t get more than a bathroom brea...

I’m an under-appreciated, underpaid professional. I am belittled for working my chosen profession, told I whine too much and I should be grateful for all I have. After all, I live in America, I have a job, a place to live, a car, food in my refrigerator, clothes on my back, and yet, I’m not grateful. Why the hell should I be grateful? I am a teacher in a metropolitan district, and I’m treated liked shit. A while back I wa...

This story contains mature themes* * *The California Board of Education meeting once again ran late into the night. The stale air became stifling in the August evening, as the air conditioning units had been shut down over an hour ago. Tempers started to flare, as discussions had become as hot as the California sunshine. Arguments were heard and heard again with no end in sight. "Look," said the chairman flatly, "we have...

Identical Twins I graduated from college in nineteen sixty six with a degree in biological sciences, and certified to teach science in grades seven through twelve. Jobs were plentiful and I was soon hired to teach at a small high school in Western North Carolina. This was perfect as the school was in the same part of the Appalachian region where I had graduated from high school only a few years earlier. The students were...

Our teacher handed us some seedsand said,“Go plant these in your yardand water them,then let your questions grow with every leaf.He hardly spoke except to askwhat’s on our minds,and when we didn’t say a word,he’d shake his head and say,“Well, that’s too bad,we’ve nothing to discuss,”and then he’d sit down on a rockand look up at the skyor at the dirt, and think.One day we asked himwhy he wouldn’t teachand he replied,“I am...