Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1500904
Lessons in making the most out of nothing By Logan Silva Last Days John La Farge " W E L C O M E T O Y O U R last first day of high school," I like to tell my senior economics classes on day one of the school year. "You've got 179 more until you graduate. Make the most out of your senior year." I then open with an introductory lesson on choice, tradeoffs and opportunity cost; the take-home message is this: Treasure ever y moment you have because time is the most valuable resource. The rest of the year is a whirlwind of academics, homecoming, sports, the dreaded senior project and college applications. I learned a lot in college, but these lessons come from a deeper place, not a lecture hall. My brother always wanted to write a book, but he never got that chance. Cancer. It takes a 6-foot-2, 200-pound, tattoo-covered force of nature and turns him into something else. Cancer doesn't discriminate. It comes in March and kills you by November, and doesn't forget to tor- ture you along the way, leaving a trail of misery and heartbreak in its wake. Institutionalized. at's a term you hear a lot. My brother had an endless fascination with my teaching career; I had an interest in his prison career. at career spanned his life, from the group home and juvenile hall as a kid to his career as a prison guard to his forays into being a prisoner himself, with a substitute teacher stint in there somewhere. His resume includes being a guard at Leavenworth and ADX Florence (e Alcatraz of the Rockies): as a prisoner, San Quentin and Soledad. He lived his life in institu- tions until he left the final one, Soledad, shortly before the end. My stepdad and I drove for seven hours to pick him up from Soledad, and we didn't recognize him: wheelchair-bound, bald from chemo, weak. It hurt him to move and we had to drive like that for hours, every little bump in the road a trauma, but he said it was better than the prison treated him. At least we didn't chain him to a crap bucket. We stopped in Pacifica to eat at his favorite fish and chips restaurant. The inside of the restaurant could only seat a few people; it was mostly full, but we managed to wedge his wheel- chair up to a spot, bumping patrons along the way. Number one request: a pint of Guinness. I felt conflicted, not wanting the alcohol to interfere with his treatment, but I ordered a pair of pints. It seems silly in retrospect. The look of gratification on his face when he took his first drink as a free man was priceless. The other restaurant-goers weren't as excited to be seated near somebody clearly on his way home from prison, gray Department of Corrections sweatpants on full display. I snapped a photo and the looks of disapproval in the back- ground: also priceless. e night he died, me, my aunt and my cousin sang his Editor's Note: Sometimes what seem like trivial experiences add up to life lessons that make their way into our teaching. Logan Silva, president of Potter Valley Teachers Association, makes sure his students know what he's learned. 49 J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 2 3 C Final Trim Size: 8" x 5" 8.25" x 5.25" Bleed 7" x 4.687 Live Area Colors 4/0 CMYK Y C K M