A Teacher's Storybook: Lessons Learned over Time, Lessons of a Different Kind

By Raymond J. Golarz and Marion Simpson Golarz

This is a book of powerful short stories. Virtually all of them reveal an emotion filled unforgettable time in the life of a child, teacher, or caregiver. The stories were originally presented orally as parts of keynote addresses. These addresses routinely brought standing ovations for the stories contained within always touched, in a very gentle and humane way, the struggles, successes, and sensitivities that exist in us all.
Some stories expose the crushing impact of deprivation and poverty; others reveal honor, empathy, and courage. Still others expose the devastating horrors of prejudice and injustice. Finally, as you complete your journey through these pages you will find that while reading you have been holding hands with the power of believing in self, believing in others, and the power of community.
You will not walk away from this book untouched. Its warm and rich stories will stay with you for years to come.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728335537

Raymond J. Golarz

Raymond J Golarz holds his B.A. and B.S. degrees from St. Joseph’s College in Indiana. In addition he received his M.S. and Ed.D. Degrees from Indiana University. He taught as a middle school and high school teacher and then served as the Director of Child Welfare Services supervising delinquency prevention and intervention programs and working with delinquent gangs and directing drug intervention programs. At the college level, he taught an array of psychology courses at St. Joseph’s college, Purdue Calumet, Indiana University Northwest and City College in Seattle. For ten years he taught Psychology for law enforcement officers near Chicago to hundreds of law enforcement officers. He has served as an assistant superintendent and superintendent of schools and has keynoted conferences in virtually every Canadian Province as well as almost every state in the United States. Currently, Ray does work as a newspaper columnist featured in Yahoo news, USA Today and the Bloomington Herald Times while Marion continues work as a content editor. With Marion his wife of 56 years he has co-authored The Power of Participation, Sweet Land of Liberty, and the Problem Isn’t Teachers. In addition, he has co-authored Restructuring Schools for Excellence through Teacher Empowerment and is the author of On My Way Home I Bumped into God. Finally, his earlier writings include Yellow Jacket Football in Hard Times and Good and a companion book When the Yellow Jackets Played, two books focusing on the strengths of the early immigrants who came to America. He and Marion have six children: Tanya Scherschel, Michael Golarz, Scott Golarz, Jocelyn Morris, Daniel Golarz and Thomas John Golarz and they presently have eleven grandchildren. They reside in Bloomington, Indiana with their calico cat Nola and their Boxer dog Cooper. All of his life Ray has enjoyed sketching, oil painting, and carpentry. The final enjoyment of carpentry he considers a gift from his father and grandfathers. As a consequence of his keynoting he has been given many special gifts. His most prized possession is the White Buffalo Indian Robe given to him after keynoting the National Native American School Boards Convention. He can be contacted at their email address [e-mail]

Book preview

A TEACHER’S

STORYBOOK

Lessons Learned Over Time,

Lessons of a Different Kind

RAYMOND J. GOLARZ

WITH MARION SIMPSON GOLARZ

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© 2019 Raymond J. Golarz With Marion Simpson Golarz.. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  12/16/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-3554-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-3553-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019918277

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

DEDICATION

To Our Children and Grandchildren

CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Preface

Lessons Learned

Do You Enjoy Chopin?

The Advocate

Danny and Charlie

A teacher’s Worst Nightmare

Mike the Bus Driver

The Treasure Box

Endless Shades of Gray

The Parent Center

The Food Disappears

Networks and the Short Form

Where Dreams Can Come True

Citizen’s Drum

The Real World

Caregivers in Need Of Care

Joe Went to Alaska

Can You Help Us Create?

Profound Complexity

The Shell Game

A Christmas Card

Cynthia

The Endless War

Gaagii

The Christmas Purse

Madness

Artistry

Mythology

Believe in Me

Justice

Impossible Burden

Stan and Mary

No Place for Jack

About the Authors

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my father Lefty Golarz who taught to me the love of storytelling,

To my friend Gary Phillips who taught me how to refine the telling,

To my wife Marion who helped me move the spoken story to the written one.

To our daughter Tanya Scherschel who edited the written word.

FOREWORD

When man first drew pictures on the wall of a cave, he was conveying messages about his life. Often his messages seemed to contain knowledge about what he saw as critical to his survival. Of course, it is also possible he simply might have been trying to capture images of the creatures and natural environment that sustained him or captivated him. Whatever his reason, he was attempting to communicate something important or special about the essence of his life. He was our first storyteller—he was our first teacher.

As time passed, man continued to want to share his knowledge not only about the challenges facing him, his family and community, but also about what he saw that was special about his life. Because he had developed a more sophisticated language, he no longer needed to make crude drawings on the wall of a cave. The stories he could now share with his children and grandchildren were told in such a way that they could be passed from generation to generation. He too was a storyteller and a teacher.

As man became even more sophisticated, he learned how to put pen to paper. Eventually he was able to send voices and images through the ether to little boxes in people’s homes. But his purpose continued to be the same as that man who drew pictures on a cave wall or the man who relayed tales most likely while sitting around a table or a campfire. These stories continued to tell the story about the challenges man faced, what his world was like, or perhaps what was simply important or special about the essence of his life.

And that is what this storyteller—this teacher—is doing with this collection of stories and several poignant essays. Some are sad, some funny. Some are discouraging, some uplifting. All of them offer insights gathered over 40 years of experience as a teacher, social worker, administrator, keynote speaker, parent, and citizen.

These true stories and the several essays have more than one purpose. They celebrate the efforts of so many dedicated teachers and other caring people who have tried to improved the lives of their fellow man. They also challenge the belief-systems that have formed our ideas about the mission of our society, the capacity and potential of each of us to learn, and the necessity to assure that adequate resources and talent are correctly provided and shared with everyone.

Above all, they are about the often unrecognized heroes who stay and work in our classrooms, administrative offices, neighborhoods and communities because they love children and want to make their lives safer, richer, and more productive so that they too can tell their own stories that will teach us about what is important, what is possible, what is true, and what is special about all our lives.

MJG

PREFACE

My father was a storyteller. I would often sit at the kitchen table and listen for hours as he would take me to places I had never been. As I grew older, my interest in listening did not wane even though the stories were ones I had heard. It may have been his enthusiasm, possibly the way he gestured, maybe his voice—the inflections, variations in volume, or possibly it was the joy in his face and smile. Maybe it was all of those things for, you see, my father was a storyteller.

In my late 20’s, I began teaching college courses in the evenings. During the day, I worked with delinquent youth and gangs in poverty communities near the South Side of Chicago. Eventually, my students included law enforcement officers, primarily from Chicago. I found very quickly that when I delivered the course content in story form, those in my classes were engaged and understood the concepts more deeply.

Over time, I came to know what stories or occasional provocative essays they enjoyed most and which ones best facilitated their learning. What I did not know was that my former students would often ask other students currently taking my class, "Has he told you the story about Danny and Charlie yet? You’ll remember that one for a long time." I was touched. They were enjoying sitting at the kitchen table.

In the early 80’s, Dr. Gary Phillips asked me to assist in the training of school communities in the inner-city of Chicago. The director of those 131 schools was Dr. Phedonia Johnson. For the next three years, I did training in each of those schools, always using the medium of stories. After that experience, I began keynoting conferences throughout the United States and Canada, eventually keynoting in every state except two and in every Province in Canada, again always using stories as the medium.