MR. HAGEN'S CLASS

A young stranger to the Alps was making his first climb accompanied by two experienced guides. It was a steep, hazardous ascent. But he felt secure with one guide ahead and one following. For hours they climbed, and now, breathless, they reached for the rocks protruding through the snow above them - The Summit. The guide ahead wanted to let the stranger have the first glorious view of Heaven and Earth, and moved aside to let him go first. Forgetting the winds that blow across those Summit rocks, the man leaped to his feet. But the chief guide dragged him down. “On your knees, sir!”  he shouted. “You are never safe here except on your knees. . .” I swiped this from a book called “Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching.”  It was in a section about reverence and humility.

The Grapes of Wrath, The Old Man and the Sea, To Kill a Mockingbird.  These are just a few of the books everyone should read.  They're rites of passage.  In my elementary school classroom I had my own standbys.  I read Charlotte's Web aloud to my kids every year and it never got old.  Then there was the ridiculous Sideways Stories From Wayside School, Hatchet and my all time favorite kids book:  Stone Fox.   There was another book that I read with my students every year not because it was a great work of literature but because it had a hook.  Part of the challenge of teaching children is getting them to WANT to read.  To do that you have to appeal to their curiosity.  Generally speaking grade school age girls are more interested in reading than boys. That’s where the children’s classic “How to Eat Fried Worms” came in.  The title alone was enough to make the girls shriek and that’s all it took to get the boys to want to r...