Sneak Peek of Chapter One, A Life of Service

Dave and I continue to plug away on Unconventional Classroom. The rough draft is done, but as is so often the case while editing, additional content continues to flow and we’re weaving in those new facets. This project has captivated both of us and to help tide us over until its release (seriously, it’s hard to keep still this close to the finish line) we want to leak - I mean share - a few sneak peeks with you. Chapter One focuses on what a life of service is and in this snippet from that chapter Dave speaks of his grandfather, a former New York City police officer, and the impact that growing up with stories of him had on Dave’s career choice.

"You're a lot like your grandfather."

Rekindled 

Newspaper clipping circa 1908

I never met my grandfather, but he had a profound impact on the path I choose to take in my life. He was a New York City police officer. Thirty years my grandmother's senior, I only knew him from family stories, a small collection of memorabilia, and a handful of newspaper clippings that I read as a kid. Those articles, chronicling his seemingly distinguished NYPD career between 1908-1918, included rooftop chases, eventful arrests, even saving the life of a drowning man. Heady stuff for a kid. How he came to be a Justice of the Peace in Alberta, Canada after his rambunctious days in New York only added to his mystery. But for my mom and her younger sister, he was simply their dad, a strict disciplinarian and of a different generation.

Still, his early career choice captivated me. I, too, wanted to choose a career that made a positive difference, that meant something important to me. As cool as chasing bad guys on rooftops sounded, teaching high school physical education seemed like an equally compelling choice. In my experience, coaches and gym teachers were happy and quite frankly seemed to have fun playing. It helped that in high school there had been a collective group of teachers that had a significant, positive impact on me. There dedication, their service, meant something. I started college, focused on a degree in education.

"You're a lot like your grandfather." The echo of my mom's voice quieted and my fascination with his career choice took a backseat to the real life of studying, exams and work. I was taking core education classes, doing my thing, my way. But when it was time to choose electives, I found myself sitting in a criminology course, then another. Those two courses rekindled that spark that had been smouldering since I was a kid. The college I was attending had a criminology program. It wouldn't be the only time I thought I had life figured out, only to find myself quite firmly on a very different path than I had originally set out on. 

from Unconventional Classroom