saultrunner48-theicebreakers

[saultrunner48-theicebreakers]

BLOG POST NUMBER 10

It is late November and, though I doubted my stamina to cope with the many novel forms fo creative writing that were expected to "master", my steadfastness in this course has delievered me a cornucopia of previously untried ideas, tools, and techniques to fuel my writinf appetite.

I have appreciated the opportunity to learn along with all of you, my class colleagues for a season. Mat your respective writing roards lead you to partial fulfillment of curiosity and a renewed appreciation for the marvelous opporunities that we are afforded.

Enjoy my amateurish video.

Happy Holidays to all!

[saultrunner48-theicebreakers]

BLOG NUMBER 10

Ah, the last Sunday prior to Thanksgiving: the thought of a few days of relaxation fuels my laziness.

It is late November and, though I wondered if I could muster the intellectual stamina needed to cope with the many novel forms of creating nonfiction writing, it seems that my steafastness has rewarded me with a cornucopia of new ideas and concepts. I am grateful for the opportunity to have learned along with you all, my colleagues for a season.

May your respective writing roads lead you to partial fulfillment of curiosity and a renewed wonder for the magnificent opportunites that have been afforded us.

Enjoy my amateur video production.

Happy Holidays to each fo you!

[saultrunner48-theicebreakers]

BLOG NUMBER 9

On Revising My Essay

Upon facing the prospect of revising my essay to its final form, I held great hope for the prospect of tough peer reviews. At this point in the essay development I am delighted that the quality of the peer reviews of my writing were essential to the objective and subjective comments and suggestions made.

While the peer reviews confirmed for me that my essay was on target in meeting the minimum requirements, the prospect of "just getting by" has no appeal to me (I am too old not to give this writing challenge my all). I am grateful for the excellent feedback provided by two of my classmates.

By the second half of this course I hadn't the foggiest notion what the acronym MLA meant. Upon receiving my peer reviews I learned that I hadn't the foggiest notion what MLA writing standards were. Thanks for the learning opportunity folks.

Writing is tough. While I been bleast with and an adventure-filled life and a mind that seems to have no limit on writing ideas, I find the writing process to the final product to be a significant challenge. Pating attention to the details is a key element in meeting that challenge and, thankfully, I find myself yet able to move forward in improvement.

I am grateful for the opportunity for continued growth in my writing abilities and in seeking betterment as a fallible human being.

[saultrunner48-theicebreakers]

BLOG NUMBER 8

Thoughts on Lots

Grretings from Auburn, Alabama!

(Photo courtesy of Auburn Universtiy Alumni Association)

No, I didn't transfer to this august learning institution: we are trapped here in town. Yes, it's a long story.

We left Fayetteville around 4:30 am on Monday for a five-day visit to New Orleans, but were thwarted by our car breaking down on I-85. But as Fortune would tease mere mortals, our Ford conked-out one mile from an Auburn exit that happened to be the location of the community Ford dealer. Ah, but Lady Fate hadn't completed her deeds as we learned that coolant was leaking into our engine block causing loss of coolant as well as engine lubrication.

(photo: https:/www.flickr.com/photos/70251312@N00/9713492320)

The verdict: the repair parts will NOT arrive until Wednesday and the number of hotels willing to accept guests with two little dogs is limited. Let's just say that we are NOT currently staying at the Hilton! Unfortunately the stress has adversely affected my spouse in his long-term recovery from pheumonia, although the forced diversion has been good for our relationship as well as providing quality time working on my essay (yes, there is WiFi here!).

Though my essay research has generally ended, I find myself in comtinuing fascination with the concepts of the lyric essay and, specifcally, with the ideas associated with the "Braided Heart" approach as an essay form.

(photo: Tori Avery)

Why the fascination with the two essay concepts? Because the needs for the Path to Shine program and the reasons for participating as a mentor in this program have become nearly indecipherable as I continue to review and examine the information I have collected to date. I truly believed that I would have an answer that would clearly explain the needs and the reasons that the Path to Shine Prgram was successful. I don't!

The relatively constrained Georgia region (metro Atlanta) where the Path to Shine programs are initiated has a population estamated at 6.5 million persons if one includes the larger Macon, GA area. Hence, the number of public school students, assuming that elementary school kids are approximately 43% of the total public school population, is inexcess of 270,000 (State of Education in Metro Atlanta Report - 2019). Given that the Path to Shine programs combined include no more than 180 or so children, one faces the stark reality that our efforts in these programs are, regardless of their isolated degree of success, are statistically insignificant when compared to the whole population in need. These approximations, when faced head-on, are gut wrenching.

Several of the people I interviewed referenced the existence of apathy among the segment of folks who were affected by the failings of school systems and, surprisingly, among the educated segment of the population that is aware of these failings. A recent article in the Atlantic Magazine indicated that, while Americans generally assign poor grades on the parformance of public schools, they remain typically ignorant of what is going on in those schools ... this ignorance, in my opinion, is yet another form of apathy. A video on the failure of Dtroit Public Schools places the blame at the feet of white people who flee their neighborhoods as non-white residents move toward them.

Another question that I face as I construct my essay is the reason I and others commit our time and energies in a school program that, while having meaning for us mentors and for the students we serve, as those programs provide insignificant overall impact on the greaer student population. This realization of insignicance is, to say the least, disheartening. Why do we do it?

My interviews with mentors will provide clues to our individual rationales. Yet my writing this essay has forced me to examine my personal reasons for participation. Some of the reasons play into the "braided heart" approach to writing essays: my rationale (and that rationale is multi-faceted) weaves in and out of my existence like the threads that hem the very shirt on my back.

As a teen I recall my often disapproving mother approaching me with a non-specific crtitcism of my person. I can't recall the exact situation or how I failed in her estimation. But she looked at me forbiddingly and said something that has jarred my soul since, "WY DO YOU HAVE TO BE SO DIFFERENT?"

Mind you, neither she nor I realized that, at the time, I was what folks would later call "gay", so the nature of my behvioral violations were not sexual or sexual preferenced. Although the extent of my shortcomings persisted in a wordless void, she accomplished something: SHE MADE ME FEEL LIKE A FREAK ... I BEGAN TO VIEW MYSELF AS AN ALIEN in the world of normals. Those words still burn!

The nature of the Path to Shine Program is to form meaningful bonds with children devoid of beneficial relationships. Through a non-judgemental approach we aim for character building and sound self-images. As tears ready for a roll upon my cheeks, I ponder in realization that I did not receive the Path to Shine approach from my mother. I do recall receiving this approach from another person: I speak of her later. No, I am not not bitter; however, I damned sure want to provide that approach to another human being in a formative period of life.

There are other threads!!

[saultrunner48-theicebreakers]

A Google Map Essay

My essay covers the many days of November 1968 when I was unceremoniously booted out of Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina. Like escaping the gravity of an evil planet, the late event subjected me to hefty G-force pressures that were temporarily debilitating. However, let me assure you that the view apart from that intellectual wasteland is marvelous.

This was a joyous exercise in creativity.

[saultrunner48-theicebreakers]

BLOG POST NUMBER 6

MY PERSONAL HISTORY COLLAGE

My apologies for the less-than-great photo of my collage: the camera on my cheap smart phone is not one of the better ones available. However, this shot provides a decent view of the collage's concept.

The circle within the collage represents the circle of life as given to us by forces greater than ourselves: as I was so impressed with the Peruvian Inca concept of "Pacha Mama", I used this term: however, one could us the terms "mother earth", or God, or the term of one's choice in recognition of the sustenance we gain from the wider entity of the universe.

The black arrows represent the flows of provisions outward, as well as the inward flows of gratitude toward the sustainer as I follow the circle from the center left (a photo of my mother while pregnant with me), and through the troubled years of my youth. There's a quote from my mother that, in my mind, symbolizes the sources of my earlier life's difficulties: "Why do you have to be so different?" Though being different is one of my greatest blessings, the pain of wallowing through that sentiment yet echoes in my memory.

The cycle continues counter-clockwise to the upper right corner and the autumn scene since, at age 72, I am in the autumn of my life. A blank space with a question mark represents the unknown future, and moves leftward through "change" until that final plea of "ah-oom" as I, like mortals, cross over the bridge to the end (rebeginning?) of the great cycle.

This collage represents the joy of living a life where obstacles, growth, learning, and mystery are woven within the tough fabric we call adventure.

[saultrunner48-theicebreakers]

BLOG POST NUMBER 5 - So Much Data: So Little Space!

I’ll begin with the positive progress on my essay: interviews. I have conducted four interviews thus far and have enjoyed the experiences of those engaged in a meaningful activity. Given that I worked as an international evaluator at the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and interviewed technical personnel in many nations, the circumstantial differences are remarkable. Those interviewed in the nuclear industry viewed my role as positively as would a patient facing a dental root canal procedure; however, I suppose those completing the dental procedure could anticipate a pain-free aftermath. Be assured that my reports were not pain free!

The one shortcoming in conducting my interviews has been a general reluctance to elaborate on opinions on why our voluntary student interactions are needed in a nation that can afford to spend trillions on foreign wars. While I suspect that my questions were unsuccessful in leading to this subject (reluctance to pressure participating folks of good will?), I am also wondering if we (those who participate in remedial educational functions) are pouring our energies into activities that, in the long run, will fail in addressing the root causes of the symptoms we observe. Since most, if not all, of the Path to Shine® personnel and volunteers are white mentors in a predominantly non-white student body, are we subconsciously blinding ourselves to the affecting sociological causes? Personal doubts! Expanding curiosity!

Challenges concerning my interviews have become a mere tangent line to the larger obstacle that I face at this point in the essay. The title of this blog alludes to the nature of this obstacle, So Much Data: Too Little Space. I will elaborate.

Three weeks back I created a rough outline of the essay that I planned. Though I didn’t anticipate that this outline would remain a static one, I had hoped not to deviate significantly from the outline. Yet, as we race toward the end of the semester, I have become increasingly conscious of the time and space limitations of the medium I will be using, the video production. At the pace I am currently advancing I, at times, feel as though I am engaged in producing a graduate thesis ... not the objective of this course.

My initial outline was as follows:

· Introduction: The Icebreakers

· Part 1: The Project; Path to Shine® and Elementary Education

· Part 2: The Need; Students and Schools Need Help

· Part 3: The Experience; Students and Mentors Interact

· Conclusion

As I my words alluded in Blog Number 4, not only has my objective wandered from the original intent, but my opinions toward our elementary school project have altered. Previously I seldom questioned why our project was needed when, perhaps, the roots of those needs have yet to be fully uncovered and, as a result, corrective actions have not been considered or proposed within our wider populace. At times I feel as though I am proverbially operating a food bank within a community of inordinately high unemployment … the food is, of course, a stopgap measure, but not a long-term solution.

Then again, perhaps I should abide by the Path to Shine model simply by building relationships with the kids, similar to the janitor who does so without a formal program:

The solution to my obstacle rests, I believe, in an analysis of the experiences of both the students and mentors as well as a review of the final interviews that I will have conducted. Such an approach can serve as microenvironment review that can, in its small way, introduce a wider consideration of wider educational and economic obstacles.

[saultrunner48-theicebreakers]

BLOG NUMBER 4: The Struggles of a Senior White American Man

In loving memory of Anna Bitterman, known to the kids as Grandma Anna, who succumbed to COVID-19 in March 2020. We miss you, but your warm presence encourages us still.

Four nights have passed since I read James Baldwin’s 1979 speech at University of California, Berkeley. His words yet burn in my ears and sear at my soul. The concepts flowing from his now still lips are in repeat mode within my consciousness. I feel ignorant. I sense a course adjustment in my essay.

Two statements from Baldwin’s address have affected the direction of my research. The first, “Every white person in this country – I don’t care what he or she says – knows one thing … they know they would not like to be black here.” The second, “… we find ourselves up against a vast machinery of racism which infects the country’s entire system of education.”

(James Baldwin at his estate in Southern France, Phot published in Semana, September 12, 2021, https://www.semana.com/periodismo-cultural---revista-arcadia/articulo/james-baldwin-escritor-negro-estadounidense-treinta-anos-tras-su-muerte/67273/)

Those two sentences alone bast away at the foundations of my essay on the Path to Shine® efforts with school children but, more significantly, question the assumptions and very motivations for my involvement in this educational program. Do I, as a white person, have blinders that hinder my effectiveness serving the children, 85 percent of whom are people of color. Am I, essentially, a collaborator in my interactions and cooperative plans with a public school system that is unintentionally destined to fail students of color? These questions haunt me – I am powerless to ignore them.

In the early 1970s as an Air Force sergeant, I had in my crew a young white airman who grew up in poverty in Eastern Arkansas. A great mechanic, he will be identified simply as Eddie. Eddie loved to drink – drink led him to tales of his scrappy town and the black neighborhood of his childhood. The Motown sound of the time set his memories back to adults who had helped him and contemporaries who had befriended, almost all African American. One night, listening to the Four Tops and others, a stewed Eddie began to cry, “Saaarrg, why do ya think God made me white? I hate being white ... I always wanted to be black!” I was baffled; however, I eventually recalled the Eddie’s military pals were seldom white. He felt trapped by his race.

(Photo courtesy of USAF)

The fact that I was baffled by Eddie’s confession was and is a telling window into the soul of a person who, fundamentally, judged his heart free of bias. I was not!

Obviously, a brief essay on the subject of “The Ice Breaker” cannot and should not resolve these two questions in their impact on my Path to Shine® efforts: the posing of these questions may need suffice. However, my essay approach now includes two factors that, in the long run, will feed on each other: how has my service to elementary school children impacted their lives and, perhaps more crucially, how has this service and the children themselves impacted my life?

The demographics of Path to Shine® student participants include 56 percent African American, 33 percent Hispanic, and the minority balance are of Caucasian origin. Since these statistics do not represent the demographic breakdowns of the communities our programs serve (some, such as Dunwoody, Georgia, are affluent and predominantly white communities), intellectual curiosity begs questions of the whys. Why do the school systems, teachers, and parents appear incapable of guiding floundering students to the goal of high school education? Why does our population of students differ significantly from the ethnic and economic backgrounds of the communities we serve? My research goal is to uncover contributing factors without firm conclusions.

A YouTube® video exists that engages a diverse group of high school students in the prospect of winning $100 in a foot race. However, before the race begins the “coach” gives each student a two-paces-forward advantage for each question answered “yes”. Each question is based solely on economic and family background with no regard for individual capabilities. For example, two-pace-forward increments are rewarded when parents are still married, if a father figure lives at home, if participants never worried about getting a meal, if the student went to a private school, and so forth. The result was that the “starting lines” differed for nearly each student: the kids with the greatest number of “yes” answers were far ahead of the “no’s”, through no efforts of their own. Incidentally, white students in the group found themselves, in general, ahead although the race had not begun.

In his highly influential blog on American education (The Edvocate), Dr. Matthew Lynch claims that multiple of reasons exist why our education systems fail some students. His reasoning includes several factors that also influence the kids who participate in our Path to Shine® programs, including limited parental involvement (parental apathy, single parent, or multiple job parent homes), insufficient school resources, lowered expectations for certain racial and economic backgrounds among educators, and an inability to achieve education equity among all demographic groups. Given that Dr. Lynch’s pronouncements were established nearly forty years following Baldwin’s 1979 speech, one wonders if the same speech could be addressed to a contemporary audience with similar accuracy.

(https://www.theedadvocate.org/10-reasons-the-u-s-education-system-is-failing/)

While my heart breaks in the hearing of Baldwin’s words, my intellect suggests that a degree of progress may have been achieved since 1979: are white folks like me less likely to hold the lot of black folks in a less pitiable perspective, and is the American education system still harboring the “vast machinery of racism”?

I am in the process of interviewing five persons who have committed goodly portions of their time to improving the prospects of children whose backgrounds represent known learning disadvantages: Rev. Leslie-Ann Drake, the founder and current executive director for Path to Shine®, a parent-family school liaison for a Fulton County, Georgia elementary school, a former instructor for a local preparatory academy who recently resigned to accept a teaching role in the Fulton County School System, an Episcopal priest who sponsored a Path to Shine® program through her church, and my spouse, Donald, who has also offered three years of dedication to local elementary school kids. My questions have changed to a degree because of James Baldwin’s perspectives.

(Photo of College Park Mayor Bianca Motley Broom by Michael Isham)

My goal is to illustrate that the learning process for those who guide the “ice breaker” across the treachery of a frozen path is as meaningful for them as it is for the children they serve.

[saultrunner48-theicebreakers]

BLOG NUMBER THREE

I love this photo primarily because this little one appears to be thoroughly engaged in learning. Yes, I understand that photos give but an impression of a point in time, but I have the sense that this dear one is willing and ready to go joyfully into his elementary education.

But why is elementary school important to a child's development?

According to US News "The early elementary years – from kindergarten through third grade – are particularly important ones in children's schooling. Parents and teachers know that children acquire new skills and knowledge rapidly during these years. Research shows that average annual learning gains for children in grades K-2 are dramatically greater than those for subsequent years of school. Moreover, the outcomes of early elementary education, particularly whether or not a child can read proficiently by third grade, are a powerful predictor of later school and life outcomes. However (sic), by the time states look at how well schools are serving children, it's much too late. By third grade, low-performing schools have left many children so far behind they never catch up. (US News & World Report, October 6, 2016)

So why do so many kids drop out of school prior to completing their high school studies?

The National Education Association (NEA) conducted interviews of 50 dropout students and were surprised by the perspectives of those individuals: "What really surprised us was that the overwhelming majority of the youth we interviewed really liked elementary school. Another surprise was how many were willing to blame themselves and how much they deeply regretted their actions that led to dropping out. Finally, what surprised me personally was the lack of interventions. We never know the full story, only the kids’ perspective, but very few recalled having any official interventions for truancy, or interventions from parents or the school (bold print by the blogger for emphasis)."

"They seemed to be forgotten by the schools or consciously ignored. We don’t know, but we suspect that in some districts, if a kid isn’t doing well and is a problem, it’s easier to let them slip away. Around the country, districts are cash-strapped and don’t have the resources to follow up on kids with numerous absences."

"The through line in many of their stories was some kind of academic challenge that undermined their faith in themselves as learners, that then led to helplessness and hopelessness about their ability to be a student, which was their primary job in life." (NEA Today, Cindy Long, December 19, 2017)

(Photo courtesy of Northern Ontario Teachers' Association)

We, the Icebreakers, are the ones who work with a non-rofoit organization named Path To Shine®, an organization founded in 2010 by Rev. Leslie-Ann Drake, a deacon of the Episcopal Church in Georgia. Though not a religious organization per se, the organization's goal is to help carry elementary school school children in need such that they complete thier high school stidies. The method? Simple: by building strong relationships with developing human beings in their formative years. We intervene in the student's education path in ways that the school systems are not budgeted to do.

My research thus far has been enlightening and has engendered a higher level of pride over what we have accomplished in my three years experience with this organization. Additionally, I am moved by the dedication and love that Leslie-Anne has applied to this effort.

My obstacles at this point are better categorized as challenges: though I am beginning to capture the basis and need for our relationships-based effort with elementary school children, I only broached the human aspects of my personal experiences in implementing this program on a local level. As writer I lean toward verbosity: "I have so much to tell you and so little space to do so." Economy of communication is my challenge.

The one true obstacle is my relative ignorance in employing the applicable technology needed in creating a video essay (especially given my instinctive senior-driven reluctance to embrace new technology in areas that I somewhat consider the exclusive domain of the printing press or word processor!). Lord help the aging mind!!

[saultrunner48-theicebreakers]

ON LOSS

This post is not part of a class assginment.

In some ways, my life has been a charmed one; death had generally hidden from my existence for more than sixty years. However, in less than two years I have incurred the death of my father, the suicide of my youngest brother, the passing of two dear friends from COVID infections, and, this past week, the loss of the dearest canine that, in my opinion, walked the earth. His name was Travis (photo, on the right), but we loving applied the nickname "Mr. Jolly." Though an accomplished sentinel, he seemed never to hold a mean edge toward any living being.

He orginated in a "puppy mill", a certain founding for congenital diseases: his fate was a canine version of congestive heart failure. With the best of vet care he easily entered his 12th year; however, the end came quickly and he began to suffer.

I weep for me, Mr. Jolly: you suffer no more, but I miss your spirit so!

[saultrunner48-theicebreakers]

BLOG POST NUMBER 2

Prior to reading and reviewing Chapters 4 and 5 in our course text (Tell It Slant by Miller and Paola) I began to feel a bit lost in approaching my essay, The Icebreakers. Yes, I possess the experience of working with public elementary school children who did not fit into what we might consider the “norm”, but I was perplexed by the possibilities of presenting that experience in a meaningful manner. In reviewing the outline of my essay, I sensed it was about to go as flat as an opened Bud Light following a three-hour drinking delay. Neither the reading nor the drink had appeal.

Text Chapters 4 and 5 (no, these passages are not due this week: I got ahead of myself!) constructs concepts of incorporating historical perspectives, life’s experiences, and personal identity into creative nonfiction. My journey through the chapter pages slowly illuminated my thinking like sluggishly energizing a dimmer switch for a ceiling light fixture: the path through a darkened room was roundly brightened.

Having lived through the administrations of 14 American Presidents, I believe that I possess a historical perspective foreign to my fellow students. I am a senior citizen, and a gay senior at that. I have a granddaughter. I hold citizenship in three nations, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, and the United States of America. My parents were immigrants. Eureka! My life has provided me both extensive experience and personal identity that differs from most folks I encounter. Though I earlier approached the essay from a self-view of being “just ordinary”, my life has been anything but commonplace.

Yes, I am different! My mother, never a person to embrace a show of one’s unique traits and preferences, used to torments me with, “why do you have to be so different?” So, like the pig owner in the video above, it’s time to embrace that difference.

Will I or should I weave all these different experiences and perspectives within the folds of my yet unwritten essay? Ah, therein persist the obstacles to the completion of my essay: how to incorporate these differences in a manner that intrigues the reader (observer?) without overwhelming her with detail. For example, does it matter in my assisting young students that I am a gay man? Yes: like many of my students I am an outsider, but an outsider with coping experience. Yes: I am forced to operate in the classroom in complete transparency for fear of unwarranted accusations. No: concepts of sexual preferences are 100% outside the scope of my mission. It’s all a balancing act.

(Photo published in Parade Magazine, March 2017)

My sociology professor in the 1970’s, Professor Thomas Kelley, in forming a verbal illustration, once stated in an ordinary fashion, “When I was on the last voyage of the ocean liner Andrea Doria….”. The significance of his comment did not immediately register: his tone was like stating he had brushed his teeth that morning. With research (he refused further comment) we learned that, as a young Catholic priest, he refused to leave the sinking ship until all known and trapped dead received the last rites (https://www.sooeveningnews.com/news/20170113/tom-kelly-to-present-the-demise-of-andrea-doria). Now THAT was am experience: he WAS different.

The Andrea Doria in her final hour - 1956

(Similar photo found throughout the internet without credit.)

The essay journey continues.

[saultrunner48-theicebreakers]

BLOG POST NUMBER ONE

In my young lad recollections, my grandmother in Sault Ste. Marie, Canada encountered a serious illness. My mother’s assistance was requested. As residents of Southern Michigan, my mother, toddler brother, and I set forth in our ancient Ford toward the border in late winter. Snow and ice were yet glued to the landscape. The journey was hazardous.

Then, as now, the trip required crossing two substantial bodies of water, the Straits of Mackinac separating Michigan’s two peninsulas, and the St. Mary’s River at the U.S./Canada border. At the time of our venture north, steel spans were but engineering dreams. Additionally, hills and flows of menacing ice invaded the winter Straits, bullying and badgering ships braving a crossing. Our jaunt was hopeless. Or was it?

Though in service two years before the Titanic, the ice breaker/ train ferry Chief Wawatum, an ugly and forbidding black hulk, provided the winter conveyance of automobiles, as well as rail cars, through the treachery of the Straits. Resting at the dock in Mackinaw City, she awaited the intermittent loading of cars that boarded alongside the occasional railcars towering over the loaded vehicles. As we awaited our turn to board, I recall being terrified of that floating beast, belching forth thickened plumes from her two stained stacks and screeching bellows of over-pressured steam. She stunk! She roared! She seemed as competent as a Model T Ford at the Indianapolis 500. But she was built as an icebreaker, and we had reached a significant challenge: reaching Canada required facing and overcoming icy obstacles.

Hindered by diminished light, Mom’s face grimaced as she was directed aboard the hungry hulk by conical lights swatted about by distracted crew. She infected her boys with terror as our Ford bumped and thumped over rails imbedded in the boat’s cargo deck. We were forcefully edged between two rail tanker cars. My brother began to cry, “Mommie, are we going to get squashed?” “Hush, son; let this crazy fellow get us to the spot he wants!”

Many minutes later we heard the thrump, thrump, thrump, as the steam pistons powered Wawatum’s propellers forward. We sensed the rise and collapse of the big ship as she bravely thrust herself through plates of ice thrust ominously toward the Chief, as though the winter winds detested her intrusion. At a walking pace, our steamship rose and dived as she hammered the frozen barriers. The seven-mile voyage taxed us with a more than an hour passage. Arriving in St. Ignace, Michigan, we resumed normal breathing. We had overcome the barrier: our journey continued.

This story I tell not solely because of my Irish roots (I can’t seem to avoid storytelling), but as a parable for introducing my class project. The project name is The Ice Breakers, a recollection of an activity I have maintained since mid-2018.

Among others, I serve local elementary school children who, for several reasons, are not well served by the nature of their individual learning patterns, because of domestic challenges at home, language barriers, acute anxiety, or, not infrequently, a simple need for more one-on-one human interaction than the traditional classroom cannot provide. These children, from kindergarten through fifth grade, face barriers that the absence of an easily transversed bridge prevents. Their life paths are blocked by barriers equivalent to the frozen plates in a northern winter. Their means of forging ahead are restricted, yet the usual “boat service” cannot handle the ice.

I am among a team of citizens, typically seniors, who serve as the “ice breakers” for these struggling human beings. Like the Chief Wawatum, we function beyond our life’s expectations. We are built to be tough. We are vintage humans: we have gained experience in tackling barriers. No, we are not trained educators: like the story of the Straits we help those without access to traditional means of crossing.

My project is the story of my experiences in ferrying young lives to a place of safe passage to their continued journey. The story is one is as meaningful to me as the memory of my own passage on the Chief Wawatum sixty-five years past.

Two lefties above brave the challenge of coloring our respective facial features (photo courtesy of Path to Shine, a non-profit organization).