Knuckleheads exist everywhere. They invade our personal spaces, television and video screens, our conversations and cause us to roll our eyes and shake our heads. Some days I was a knucklehead. I knew it and as I grew older I  learned to embrace it. We’re human after all, but some are better at it than ours; that is, realizing our faults and frailties and moving on.

Within each chapter of Drifters you will meet a new knucklehead. You will experience their malfunctions and hopefully you will understand why I did what I did with each. All their problems represented teachable moments and I tried to interact with them on a basal level, you know, look ‘em in the eyes and use commonsense tempered with a combination of threat-laced consequences, compassion and compromise. I never talked down to my charges.

My tone was usually soft and direct, but my surprise was never filtered as I reveled in their stupidity. Yes, knuckleheads did stupid things. They were not necessarily stupid, but their behavior was often new to me, their drift too fast.

Photo courtesy freedigitalphotos.net 

Each school day was an adventure and I loved every minute of it.