Michigan's Upper Peninsula is blessed with a treasure trove of storytellers, poets, and historians, all seeking to capture a sense of Yooper Life from settler's days to the far-flung future. Since 2017, theU.P. Reader offers a rich collection of their voices that embraces the U.P.'s natural beauty and way of life, along with a few surprises. The twenty-three works in this third annual volume take readers on U.P. road and boat trips from the Keweenaw to the Soo. Every page is rich with descriptions of the characters and culture that make the Upper Peninsula worth living in and writing about. U.P. writers span genres from humor to history and from science fiction to poetry. This issue also includes imaginative fiction from the Dandelion Cottage Short Story Award winners, honoring the amazing young writers enrolled in all of the U.P.'s schools. Featuring the words of Larry Buege, Mikel B. Classen, Deborah K. Frontiera, Jan Kellis, Amy Klco, David Lehto, Sharon Kennedy, Bobby Mack, Becky Ross Michael, T. Sanders, Donna Searight Simons and Frank Searight, Emma Locknane, Lucy Woods, Kaitlin Ambuehl, T. Kilgore Splake, Aric Sundquist, Ninie G. Syarikin, and Tyler R. Tichelaar. 'U.P. Reader offers a wonderful mix of storytelling, poetry, and Yooper culture. Here's to many future volumes!' --Sonny Longtine, author ofMurder in Michigan's Upper Peninsula 'As readers embark upon this storied landscape, they learn that the people of Michigan's Upper Peninsula offer a unique voice, a tribute to a timeless place too long silent.' --Sue Harrison, international bestselling author ofMother Earth Father Sky 'I was amazed by the variety of voices in this volume.U.P. Reader offers a little of everything, from short stories to nature poetry, fantasy to reality, Yooper lore to humor. I look forward to the next issue.' --Jackie Stark, editor,Marquette Monthly TheU.P. Reader is sponsored by the Upper Peninsula Publishers and Authors Association (UPPAA) a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation. A portion of proceeds from each copy sold will be donated to the UPPAA for its educational programming.
Whenever I look at a pencil—especially those plain, yellow, six-sided #2 pencils—school, and therefore teachers, come to mind. Pencils and teachers—they are forever intertwined. My personal favorite pencil was the #4 because the harder lead stayed sharp longer. I detest dull pencils. Since the advent of the standardized tests which require a #2, I’m not even sure if they make #4 anymore. Those fill-in-the-bubble tests made their debut while I was in high school, and we had to take the ACT or SAT for college entrance. There were no prep classes and all the nonsense there is today. Our test prep was to get a good night’s sleep and to eat a hearty breakfast on the day of the test, and don’t forget—you have to bring#2 pencils.
Our teachers simply taught their subject matter. Some of them better than others, of course. Some of them more memorable than others—for better and for worse. So begins this mind ramble about pencils and teachers.
•••
Mrs. T came to my name on her sixth grade class roster, “De-BOR-ah Olson.”
Indignant, I responded, “It’s DEB-or-ah, preferably Debbie.” She glared at me over the top of her reading glasses and down her pointed witch’s nose, and called out the next name.
Okay, we both set a bad tone for the first day of the school year, but SHE started it! Or maybe my four older siblings, who had also had Mrs. T for their sixth grade teacher, set up the bad reputation for our family name. That’s a good possibility since another teacher—the high school math teacher whom I would meet in the next year in 7th grade—had this response when he saw my name on the roster, “Another Olson?!”
“Don’t worry; I’m the last one,” was my response that time. Mr. M and I did get along, though, even if I wasn’t his top math student—never had much of a sense of mathematical logic.
That lack of mathematic sense was due in a large part to Mrs. T, who taught strictly by rote memorization of the “rules” of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Mrs. T. probably taught by rote because that was how she had learned. Looking back, she probably didn’t understand the basic concepts herself, couldn’t explain them, and therefore taught the way she was taught, and God help you if you asked a question
