I retired from my inner-city Washington, D.C., pediatrics practice at 65. Immediately I began missing kids. I soon started reading to them in West Fairlee. By the time the new Westshire Elementary School replaced the West Fairlee Elementary School in about 2000, I had become something of a fixture at the old school.
Years later, I was thrilled when a new administrator and a new teacher identified themselves to me independently as having listened to my readings when they were little.
Meeting the pandemic challenge on Zoom has been relatively easy for me: an unmasked “commute” to my second-floor study takes just an environmentally friendly moment. For everyone else (teachers, staff and my fifth grade kids) that same reality is a challenge. One day Zooming at home and the next day watching Zoom at school can be pretty tough.
On average I read two half-hour sessions a week. The kids seem to enjoy the 1911 classic, The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett, about an unhappy, orphaned English girl who finds friendship and family in the walled garden on her uncle’s country estate.
It is great fun to give the British and specifically Yorkshire characters distinct voices. (My Scottish cousin dismisses my accent as “vaguely Australian,” but you can’t win ’em all.)
I have also enjoyed reading Pax, by Sara Pennypacker, the story of a pet fox who must fend for himself in the wild, and the first Harry Potter book, (which I own in eight different languages, including Latin). In the future, I’m tempted to do one of the classics from my own childhood.
I must give special thanks to Westshire fifth grade teacher LeeAnn Senecal and my other enablers, most particularly teacher Barbara Griffin, administrator Ann O’Hearn and parent Rebecca Wurdak.
By hosting many volunteers such as myself, the Rivendell Interstate School District enriches our lives. It moves toward being a true Department of Education for all ages, something I believe every community needs.
Jim Hughes lives in West Fairlee.