"If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." - Sir Isaac Newton
For over fifty years, the Search Institute (search-institute.org) has sought to discover what young people need to succeed. What they have found is that young people do not need role models such as rock stars or athletes; rather, they need an adult who will invest in their lives and provide them with the inspiration, encouragement, and hope that young people need to succeed. In fact, Search Institute would say that having three caring adults in their lives can set students on the paths to success.
As an English teacher, I have spent most of my career trying to get students to write well. Try as I might, I rarely saw the results that I wanted to see from students on their writing assignments with dry topics that did not connect with their personal lives. In my role as an adjunct profess at the University of Mary, I now seek to give meaning to my students' writing so that they can work through their writing struggles in a meaningful assignment.
This book is a collection of tributes to those who have inspired us (yes, I have an essay in here as well). Giving my students a purpose was necessary to see them flourish and improve in their writing skills. Each of the students featured in this book came to my course with some writing struggles, but they have worked hard to communicate about the parents, mentors, siblings, teachers, coaches, etc. who inspired, encouraged, and challenged them to be better than they thought they could be.