S1 Summer School E2: Crockett, Haston, and Bryce

“The State of Education (Part 1)”

There are plenty of conversations that don’t need a microphone to matter. Those long, meandering ones that stretch across classroom desks or lounge chairs or chipped laminate tables in the teachers’ workroom. Those end-of-the-year conversations that drift from lesson plans to life plans to whatever’s on someone’s true crime reading stack that week. But sometimes you realize a conversation does belong on tape. Not because it’s polished or prepared, but because it’s genuine. A once-in-a-blue-moon conversation with people you haven’t seen in forever, who might be gone for a while again. Once upon a time, it was their voices in this classroom, as our students. Recording a sit-down with them captures the authentic love we have for our students and the work we do, and it tunes in the worn-out laughter from the end of the semester. It hit upon something real about why we teach, why we stay, and why we sometimes consider leaving.

Today’s episode is one of those.

We gathered around a table on a Friday after school: me, my co-teacher Drew Haston, and Bryce Fox, a former student turned young dad who wanted to talk shop. He had questions about careers in education, whether it was worth it, whether it still made sense to pursue a path toward high school English, or maybe library science, or maybe something else entirely. He trusted us because he knew us way back when I had Bryce in class and Haston coached him on the field. And we trusted him enough to answer with more than just our professionally prepared teacher-voice answers.

Also in the room: his wife Kelly, another former student with a smile that hasn’t changed since sophomore year, and their baby boy.

We talked about what works and what doesn’t. What the job asks of you and what it gives back, often in ways that don’t show up on a paycheck. We laughed a lot. We got a little nostalgic. We asked each other the hard questions. And more than anything, we remembered why school feels like a second home when it works the way it should.

So, as summer break continues, grab a chair and settle in for part one of a rare kind of reunion: teachers, students, generations of voices, all still chasing the same thing. A better tomorrow.

This is With Honors.

You can find our show

on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0881bUWWdgkBdGzHlPNToi?si=1HS8tQGXRyOgn1h5bs2pTg

on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/with-honors/id1797115480

on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCweufFHJbylu4tR598SDj5w

Also, throw some love at our brotherly podcast with Coach Haston, A Deadman’s Books. He’s on Spotify at https://open.spotify.com/show/4HtulwbO10pOjV5hbdWOty?si=I5Tt07unQJWVhaFVsInP8A

and Apple Podcasts at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-deadmans-books/id1795582942

This episode features excerpts from W.G. Snuffy Walden’s “Project Blue” from The Stand, nifty sound bites, and inspiring piano music by BlackTrendMusic, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jcrock.substack.com