E. JANET JOHNSON--POET, TEACHER, MENTOR
READINGS FROM ROOT CAUSE
November 14, 2024--Full Circle Coop, Sioux Falls, SD (Poetry on the Road)
January 13, 2025--Brookings Toastmasters Club
March 25, 2025--Sioux Falls downtown Public Library
April 23, 2025--Brookings Art Council, Brookings, SD (Poetry on the Road)
June 8--McCrory Gardens reading with SD Poet Laureate , Bruce Roseland
2025 Festival of Books, Spearfish, SD, Sept. 26-28
ROOT CAUSE can be ordered on the Barnes & Noble website.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/E.%20Janet%20Johnson
I have spent almost 70 years in a classroom environment either as a student (K-12, college, graduate school), a teacher (middle school, high school, university), or faculty mentor (university). I have now completed a book of 100 free-verse narrative poems that tell "slices of life" from both sides of the desk--as a student and as a teacher. The first half of the book focuses on my experiences as a K-12 student, and the second part includes poems about some of my experiences as an educator, ranging from middle school to university.
Summary statement:
Between ages 5-18, most of our time is spent at school, a dominant force in our lives, affecting us in both positive and negative ways. Upon high school graduation, a number of us will continue on with our education for two, four, six, or eight years more. ROOT CAUSE is a story in poems about the author's resilience despite often being uprooted during her first 18 years, attending five different public school systems, experiencing the classroom in various parts of the U.S. Her narrative poems about school years in the 1950s and 1960s often reflect societal attitudes of those times and beyond, how she navigated through the repressive, rigid atmosphere of schools then, and grew into a award-winning educator, retiring at age 74, never forgetting what it feels like to be a student, no matter at what age.
My very first teaching experience. I lived a block away from Agassiz Middle School, Fargo, ND. Walked every day, even when the windchill was minus -80 degrees below. Photo: In 2019, visiting 50 years later.
There's my room!
The Principal's Office, Agassiz Middle School
Top photos my first classroom!
Photo above:; Notorious 3rd floor classroom, last period of the day