The neighbors often saw the 8-year-old boy with his fishing pole riding his bike to Minnehaha Creek. I picture dappled sunlight on the grassy parkway, where he would have dropped his bike to scamper down to the muddy banks (maybe finding a foothold on a fallen tree) to cast his …
The sky was pink, but the sun had not yet risen above the skyline, when I pulled into the temporary parking lot at the airport on a humid, July morning. I almost didn’t see the baby bunny dart in front of my car. But she was quick, and I was …
In Latimer, Iowa, the elementary school has a little animal farm1. Fifth and sixth grade students are responsible, under the guidance of community volunteers, to raise and care for chickens, goats, and the occasional pig. The students feed the animals, change out bedding, monitor health, and scoop manure. But this …
In the spring of 1973, when I was twelve-years old, as I did each year, I entered my school’s Science Fair. That particular year, I evaluated the effects of diet on mice. A month before the Fair, I bought two white mice, and I got them settled in separate cages. …
It has been a year since I last published an essay. In 2024, our oldest son gifted my husband and me each a subscription to StoryWorth. I spent the year writing my memoirs instead of untangling snarls. The snarls, however, continue to pile up, and I am back to untangling …
In the cold pre-dawn of February 2nd, my husband and I drove to the neighboring town of Woodstock and joined the crowds scurrying toward the iconic Square. The classic movie, Groundhog Day, may be set in Punxsutawney, but it was filmed in Woodstock, and for the last three decades the …
Recently I listened to Robert P. George, Director of the James Madison Program at Princeton University, on a podcast. As he discussed the importance of teaching students to marshal evidence for their positions and arguments, he observed that historians sometimes label eras the Age of This or That. The medieval …
Years ago, I read two different news stories about two different girls. Both girls lived in poor and violent neighborhoods on the south side of Chicago. Both girls were 18-years old, and about to leave high school. The Chicago Tribune did not connect these stories; the stories are only linked …
The U.S. Department of Education has proposed a rule that prohibits the outright ban of transgender students in the sports of their gender identity. The rule “provides flexibility for schools to achieve important educational objectives through their athletic program. …(and will) allow schools flexibility to develop team eligibility criteria…(although) these …
Ten years ago, I volunteered to create a small garden in one of our neighborhood’s public parks. In hindsight, I made one bad assumption and one strategic mistake. Both seem like cautionary tales when I think about our current politics and governance. The garden was to be carved out of …
