COME SEPTEMBER, Journey of a High School Teacher

by John Bolinger

The word “teacher” conjures up so many conflicting images, because it is a word so rich in meaning, that revealing you’re a teacher, without the chance to expound a bit on what that signifies, is like being thirty-nine years and eleven months old but telling people you’re thirty-something. Too much has to be left out, which is why I wrote this book to share what it meant to me working in a public school all those years. Education in America is a huge topic, but I don't believe that enough is said in personal ways right from the trenches. Books like UP THE DOWN STAIRCASE by Bel Kaufman, and TEACHER MAN by Frank McCourt are what can truly influence teaching in positive ways, and my book falls into that category, education from the point of view of an actual teacher, not a theorist. Mr. McCourt was my present age when he published his first book, ANGELA'S ASHES. In the autumn of 1969, I , a first-year, Indiana high school teacher of English and French, wondered if I had chosen the right career in trying to become a modern-day Mr. Chips, but I ended up staying for thirty-five years with that profession of high drama and hilarity in an ever-changing America, where both failure and triumph created who I became as a person and mentor. The book personalizes what it means to be a teacher, a student, and a parent as generations change from one to another. If there was any problem at all in teaching French to Northwest Indiana Hoosiers, it was that French was at first viewed as some kind of luxury, something frilly and totally unnecessary in order to function in a world that was all about paying bills on time, having clothes to wear, and enough to eat. That practical framework of values didn’t include knowing any more French than what R.S.V.P. meant, and certainly didn’t include the need to know anything at all about “pate de foie gras” or that Coco Chanel wasn’t some new kind of kid cereal. My work was cut out for me. Alternately funny and touching, COME SEPTEMBER, conveys the story of every high school teacher’s struggle to enlighten both himself and his pupils, encountering along the way, battles with colleagues, administrators, and parents through a parade of characters that include a freshman boy for whom the faculty code name is “Spawn of Satan,” to a senior girl whose water breaks during a pop-quiz over THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS. Through social change and the relentless march of technology, the human element remains constant in the book’s personal, entertaining, and sympathetic portraits of faculty, students, parents, and others. The audience for this book will certainly include school teachers everywhere, teenagers, parents of teens, as well as anyone who appreciates that blend of humor and pathos with which the world of public education is drenched. The drive of the story is the narrator's struggle to become the best teacher he can be. The book is filled with advice for young teachers based upon experience of the writer, advice that will never be found in college methods classes.

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 12, 2012

Reviews

[Carol]

If one is a high school teacher or plans to be, she or he should read this humorous, but serious memoir of a great teacher. Bolinger taught for 35 years at Morton HS in Hammond, Indiana, in the rusty, tough steel mill area. He writes of the students,the staff, the activities, his crazy practical jokes (or passive aggressiveness ), and of the change in education over the years. But it is his passion for teaching, his efforts to stretch the minds of all of his students that is the essence of this book.

[Mark A Deere]

...and what a fascinating journey you had

I was a former student at MHS from 69' to 73'. This book brought back, to me, so many memories. I was not the author's class student however I was a member of the speech and debate team, in those days. Half of the fun, I had, reading this memoir was deciphering the different characters under the cloak of anonymity for privacy sake. I love the "Frazier..esk" humor that Mr. B had 20 years before that sitcom character was ever developed. I was, also, very touched by the heartfelt caring and humility that a devoted teacher has. Thanks for being that impressionable teacher and in, my opinion, a gifted writer. This book should be a required read by all teachers, including my sister a 28 year HS teacher who I'm sending a copy to.

[Mary Wilson Redden]

This is a charming book.
John Bolinger retired in the early 2000's, and I felt like I was reading about a teaching environment that is now obsolete. No references to the almighty testing regimes, no major discipline/disrespect issues. I'm the child of two public school teachers who retired in 1986 and 1990, and Mr. Bolinger's stories sound like my parents' stories, but are definitely a far, far, cry from a typical classroom today. Frankly, his book made me said for today's students and teachers.

[Ann]

Wow! What Rich and amazing history this young teacher has taught high school English through.
The author started his teaching journey in the very late 60s, and celebrated a very bittersweet retirement party in the summer of 2004. This was a very interesting read.