Late Saturday night I met Jerry Harste in the Marriot River Center in San Antonio, Texas. In the early nineties I read several of his books and was in awe at his writing and  work during that time. He may be considered by many the father of the whole language movement. Meeting him brought back memories of how I have got to where I am in my career. As I look back I remember how his writing helped me understand constructivist learning and helped me transform my classroom.

The late eighties and the early nineties were an exciting time in my life as I was learning to be a teacher- not that I have actually reached that high honor. My first teaching job was in 1988 in Greenwood, SC as a reading teacher in a Junior High School. I realized after my first week of teaching with seventh, eighth, and ninth graders I a lot to learn about teaching and myself. As the year progressed, it did not get much better; however, I did survive. Several things happened to me that year was unforgettable. These happening took my mind of being something less than a teacher. First, I was engaged to my future wife. We were marrying in the summer of 1989 and we were young and in love. It was a great year as we got to know each other better. Second, I made a friend with colleague who had learned from Nancy Atwell. I learned how exciting eight grade classroom was through authentic writing and literature circles as she and her students studied novel together. In May and June of I read In the Middle by Nancy Atwell twice.

Fast forward to the summer of 1992, my teaching career changed again from my participation in the Summer Institute of the Coastal Area Writing Project. It was during that summer and several years that followed I engaged in the work of Jerry Harste. (books–)

The transformation in my classroom was both visible to me and others looking in. I too was amazed at how students easily embraced writing, reading, responding, and creating content as archived evidence of their learning. There was visible evidence in test scores from my students. I started co-teaching professional development courses with Dr. Janet Files through the Writing Project.

Jerry’s work with Whole Language and the NCTE will continue to leave a legacy. He is a former past President of NCTE and Professor of Language Education at Indiana University, where he holds the distinction of being the first Martha Lea & Bill Armstrong Chair in Teacher Education. He laid the ground work for changes that have happened in education and that will eventually come again. The whole language movement is back. Some may call it whole language and other my disguise it as something else. His work allows constructivist teachers and learners to move forward. He laid the foundation so that digital tools will find their way into classroom pedagogy. His work established the ground work so that we can move into this new age.

We need not discount the work of others and ourselves. Many time in education we see things re-filtered and renamed but we must not forget those who made the evolution happen. I never know what my legacy may be by those who discover my writing a hundred years from now. As teachers we often don’t realize our legacy with those we teach and the roles we play in our students lives both positively and negatively. It was an high honor to meet Jerry, and he will be remembered well for his contributions in education for years to come by many educators.