Publication

As a guy who spent a career as an educator, I’ve had great respect for written pieces that reach print publication. First, everything I ever taught from, be it magazine, paperback novel, or textbook, somehow made it through an editing process before it was introduced into my classroom. I did make plenty of printouts of supplemental articles and stories, but all of those pieces were also published in print first.

To some degree, I suppose, this dates my years in the classroom as a teacher. When I was first set loose in a seventh grade English classroom by myself in fall 1972, all I had to lead my way through the content were the books provided. Students bought spelling workbooks back then. I remember how we had to collect a fee from every kid to pay for their own consumable copy. We had literature anthologies, and a grammar handbook, but no course of study. It was assumed that the teacher’s job was to creatively marshal the content of materials provided into a nine-month sequence of activities that somehow worked. I hate to admit it, but I think many positive evaluations hinged not so much on successful execution of content, but how well teachers got kids to behave. Successful classrooms were often determined to be those where teachers got kids to sit and actually get something done.

Still, however, I took my job damned seriously and was always on the lookout for a project or piece of literature that could bridge the gap between the text and somehow connecting to kids’ learning. During my thirty+ years teaching, as well as my own time as a student, I developed a deep respect for published materials.

These days, of course, things are different. When I left the classroom eight years ago, I still didn’t have a computer in my room. And even if I had, it surely wouldn’t have been hooked up to the outside world yet. We did have a few computer labs then that had T1 lines, and I signed up to use them, but with the internet so new, I spent most of my time having kids use the terminals as word processors. I did get some experience with teaching with technology as a community college instructor, however, and found it both daunting and really cool. The internet has taught us there are other ways to publish these days, and most often it isn’t in print.

So as a retired teacher who is still in love with language, I play with words every day and have found new ways to circulate them. This blog is one case in point. The two websites I shepherd are another: earthspeaks.org and emilysboys.com. Currently my biggest problem is learning website software well enough to create sites that are visually and aurally interesting. I’m still working on it.

But, I am proud to say, I have recently seen my first essay make independent print publication. Some of my stuff made print before, but I had a hand in it. This time around, I just wrote it and somebody else thought it was good enough to publish in hard copy. And I don’t mind telling you, such feels mighty good. Here’s a list of the stuff I have written that has been set forth on the world’s readers. I’m afraid you won’t be able to find much of it available out there, but if you ask really nice, I could always make you a copy and send it your way.

List of works published by Tom Schaefer:

‘Home Ground.’ Desert Call. Spiritual Life Institute, Crestone CO. Spring 2010. An essay on the spiritual aspects of travel focusing on Wayne High School’s Geology Field Study/American West program.

The Back Porch Blog. Weekly essays. Began May 2009.

Letters to the World. By Emily’s Boys (James Hughes, David Dominic, Andy Bergeron, and Tom Schaefer). Self-published book at blurb.com. December 2008.

Collection of poetry and original writings.

Nature’s People: Emily Dickinson and Mabel Loomis Todd as Lovers of Nature. Book in progress. Anticipated publication date: fall 2011.

Across the Narrows. Newsletter of Friends of Hog Island, Maine. Tom Schaefer, editor (c. 2000-03)

Today’s elder idea:

Publication — is the Auction
Of the Mind of Man —
Poverty — be justifying
For so foul a thing

Emily Dickinson