Things that happened are possible because they happened
Snyder chooses the metaphor of a person in a parachute landing in the present day, that is coming from nowhere. That person will have no bearings to comprehend what’s around him. Instead, Snyder sees lines from the past all heading to a horizon (the present). My Substack and memoir are my line from the past, which I offer to present-day teachers and readers.
I think of the first classroom I had. My predecessor, who I never met, was there before me. The room had a presence with a wooden floor, large windows with multiple panes and tan shades, desks in rows, a blackboard with broken white chalk, globe ceiling lights, wall maps, textbooks and reams of white and yellow paper among other things in a closet behind the teacher’s regal oak desk. Someone had been there and done that (we could say). I was there to pick up where she left off. Someone would follow me someday. The school would be renovated, the room gone. But those of us who there, we were part of the school.
We all carry lines, offering them for those who follow us. As Snyder postulates, no-one knows what is going on right now. You can’t start from the present to understand the future. But if you draw from the past, you can find some clarity about what you do and can do, what might happen.
I believe, and have for sometime, if today’s teachers discover what I and other teachers have done it will help them choose their paths toward a better future. From my experience––from my former teachers, mentors, and writers––I welcomed new ideas and lessons for my briefcase that I in turn, would offer in my classroom. From my earliest days, I disdained the role of deliverer but saw myself as offerer. Building on my colleagues knowledge together with my students we created new possibilities, ones I hope will become possibilities for today’s teachers.
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forward” (Kierkegaard)
I write to bring ideas and methods from my life as a teacher in the latter half of the 20th century to help teachers and the public to “live forward” in this century. My latest book, Teacher in the Rye: Doing It My Way is available on Amazon. And I welcome comments here on my Substack or by email at frankthoms3@gmail.com.
