Was there a book that changed your life? If so which one and how did it affect you?

Reading William Saroyan’s book, My Name Is Aram, about growing up as an Armenian immigrant in Northern California, made a great impression on me. I learned that life could be sad and happy at the same time and that the written word could really touch the heart. I felt a deep sense of joy and compassion for the quirky characters in Saroyan’s short stories. There was also this sense of magical wisdom that pervaded the nostalgic kingdom of childhood. I was, quite simply, filled with wonder!

Did you learn anything from writing your book?

I learned that writing is sort of like wrestling with one’s self. This wrestling match usually occurs in isolation until the day comes when you have to come out of your room and expose yourself. It can be a very humbling experience!

As for myself, I had to struggle with my lack of patience in the writing process itself. I also had to grapple with trusting my instincts and believing in my own capacity to bring some wonder into the world.

What inspired you to write your first book?

I was inspired by my topic: a public school that has saved lives, mine among them, for almost 40 years. I felt compelled to tell the story of this transformational experience so that others might benefit from demanding something different from their schools. I was also motivated by some of the prominent goals of the school:  to rediscover the joy of learning,  to seek meaning in your life and  to help create the world that ought to be.

What books have most influenced your life?

There are many, but I might start with Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Paulo Friere was not afraid to confront the truth about the educational system and its subservient role in keeping people down by protecting the status quo.

I’d also include Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness that revealed the depths of the human spirit and, of course, Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man which exposes the truth about the struggles for identity and freedom in a forbidding environment.

Of course, I could list 100 more.

As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

All I know was that I had all of these quirky interests and no one seemed to take them seriously. I was like a lot kids growing up in the fifties and sixties. I felt isolated and anonymous. I needed someone to believe in me. As a result, I went off to college not having any real sense of direction.

As we know, one thing leads to another. I found my way to teaching from the back end of working in the schools as a bus driver and a custodian. I found that I liked being around kids so I went back to school to get my teacher’s license. Now, I could finally use those quirky interests as a teacher.

Here’s a nice irony: when I was working on my Ph.D. in education, I had to return to my alma mater and interview some professors. I hadn’t taken a single education class as an undergraduate, so here I was, asking where the education building was located!

Tags | education reform, public education, teaching