: About Me

I am an instructor of Adult Basic Education at a Community College in Greensboro, North Carolina. My original career goal was to become a high school and perhaps college band director. I was offered a job teaching public school music in Florida, and eagerly accepted it. The year was 1968, and the country was embroiled in the Viet Nam War. A job offer arrived for a band director after I boarded the bus for Florida.

I taught in Florida for 15 years - music, first grade, and adult basic education. The illness of my father brought be back to Greensboro with my husband and daughter. I have since been an administrative assistant, word processor, public school teacher, and my current position. I also have an in-home business in which I design desktop publishing projects.

My enormous job experience stems for the fact that layoffs and downsizing have become a way of life. My career began just as the economy was beginning to take drastic financial turns. I always managed somehow to find a job of some kind. Each new job brought new knowledge and experience and, I feel, expanded my capabilities. In spite of my diversity of job experience, my heart has always been in education. That love that has run - like blood - through the veins of my family for generations. Books were always in the house, my parents (both college professors) were always grading papers and each year I attended commencement with them. Two of my grandparents were also teachers. I was literally saturated with education. Both grandfathers were ministers (no thanks - don't want to do that).

Unemployment is a challenge, but I have found that having an education can be an enornous asset when you're in the job market. You may sometimes be priced you out of the market for some jobs, but you're still better off with at least a high school diploma. For this reason, I am extremely concerned about the high dropout rate among high school students. I teach many of these students at the Community College. They are working toward their high school diploma and the acquisition of necessary job and survival skills. It is my goal to help this population to reach their ultimate potential in a world this not kind to underachievers.

For a year, I was a community columnist for our local newspaper.

In March of this year, we had a house fire and have been relocated while our house is under repair. We should be able to go back into it before Christmas - hopefully.

As I get older, I find a wealth of ideas coming from past experiences and observations that I would love to share with readers. Hope you enjoy my ideas. Please share with me any comments.
Crystal

Creative Writing > Reflections Reflections: Alzheimer's disease

19 of 29

Al is a vicious and elusive entity. For some unknown reason, he finds the necessary nourishment for survival and growth within the minds of different individuals. There is no pattern to his choice of hosts, and he finds comfort with the rich and the poor, the brilliant and the challenged, male and female. No one is really immune, but some manage to avoid his occupation. He has a particular fondness for the elderly; those seemingly unable to fend him off - those with little fight left. His hibernation is unclear; he may snooze for years before yawning, stretching and going about the busines...

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