Dr. J

Many of us have at least one teacher who changed the trajectory of our lives. This is one for me, good old Dr. J, my professor for several of my education classes at Western Oregon University. His health has been faltering the last few years, but I paid him a visit at his apartment in his retirement home in Salem today. I brought two gifts for him. One was the book The Courage To Teach by Parker Palmer. Excellent reading. I have a copy myself, and now we will read it together, and discuss it as we go. The second was a picture of another of Dr. J’s students, my good friend Jeff C., who is the principal and boys’ basketball coach at Oakland High School. Dr. J was thrilled with them both, but he especially loved the picture. He held up the book and said, “One for my head,” then held up the picture, “and one for my heart.”

Good old Dr. J.