In Print

Check out the cover and my introduction to the 120-page collection of stories written, compiled, and edited by students in all of my English classes. I am proud of their work.

This is, in large part, what teaching is all about.

Introduction

Writers cannot exist without readers, so thank you for picking up this book. If you came here looking for one story in particular, read it. Then read the rest.

This collection of autobiographical vignettes was written, edited, and produced by students in my ninth grade English classes. I asked them to write about something that fundamentally changed them. Most of them have been used to writing superficially about their lives: where they were born, what they like to do, and where they want to go. Few have been asked to write about something that makes them what they are.

For many, it was difficult to understand what I was asking them to accomplish. Children are not used to having their voices heard in any meaningful way and, especially at this age, are uncomfortable telling truths that might expose an emotional weakness.

Reading some of these vignettes, it’s hard to believe they were written by children. Although the construction of many of the stories reveals their inexperience as writers, the spirit articulated by their sometimes clumsy words reveals unexpected wisdom: I believe it is unexpected not because it is unusual, but because we are not used to looking for it. Listen to the voices of these growing young adults. What they have to say speaks to a common human experience they are just now beginning to understand.

Remember too, these young voices are becoming stronger and are the shout of tomorrow’s majority. They will speak for us in the coming generation: they will teach their children and they will use their voices to affect families, neighborhoods, communities, and perhaps the world. I have called them children, but this collection shows how these young writers are on the cusp of adulthood and some, sadly, have already suffered a too early loss of childhood.

Here are stories of triumph, of joy, of pain, of sadness, of betrayal, and of a certain sad understanding. They will make you smile and chuckle and cheer. Some will make you cry. Some will haunt you.

K. Rice
S______ High School
May 2007