On the Education Front

A Teacher’s Journey Through Uncomfortable Conversations

An Insider at the Intersection of Pedagogy and Politics

Walter Bowne
Age of Awareness
Published in
10 min readSep 12, 2024

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The author’s classroom in March 2023. He retired from public school teaching at the end of June 2024.

Navigating the Unseen Explosions in Education

In November 2023, we were studying The Narrative of Frederick Douglass. The desk and chairs formed a square. The students called it “The Cube of Knowledge.” The rug from my mother-in-law served as centerpiece.

She has since passed. She was so smart. But as a woman of that generation, she probably felt the cold of the glass ceiling. She was a math teacher, the only one of her poor Irish Catholic family to graduate from college. Her father was a coal miner in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

But things can change in one generation.

Equity, fairness, inclusion, empathy, love, and support — as an English teacher, that’s always been my mission and mantra. I know the importance of theatrics, improv, public speaking, and impromptu debates on the “Rug of Discussion.” I encourage young adults to unravel their protective cocoon and feel the thrill of learning.

Sometimes, though, teachers may overreach. Teaching is theater — live. Interactive. Engaging. It can get students out from behind 19th Century assembly-line…

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Walter Bowne
Age of Awareness

This “trophy husband” writes fiction, poetry, narrative non-fiction, travel essays, music essays, book reviews, and essays about his belly button.