Gasping for Some Real School


The following is a guest blog written by Cherry Creek High School Junior Kerry Martin.  It is his original, unedited submission to the Denver Post that was published as “Breathing Life Back into Education“  Click on the link to see the Denver Post Article.  We intend to include other “Teen Voices” on this blog in the future.  Well done Kerry!  Thanks for being the first contributor!

With his proud, cereal-box stature and determined countenance crafted with a few colored pencils, Lung Man was mighty. I gave him life, like my own Frankenstein monster for a fifth grade science project: students were to go home; chow down on all the Apple Jacks they could handle until the box was vacant; cut open the front of the box to expose what would be the complex inter-working of the human respiratory system; add all necessary appendages to make the box much more than just a box; and finally…the lungs. I could breathe in and out of a tube that connected to Lung Man’s lungs from behind his paper head to expand and contract those paper sacks of life. Lung Man not only clarified and glorified the art of breathing, but probably influenced my choice years later to not try inhaling paint thinner as a hallucinogen. (more…)

A Price Too High (Part 2)


Look back at your life.  Can you and point to a single person, event, or experience, that changed everything from that point forward?  Can you think of a decision that you made, or an opportunity that you took, that sent you down one path instead of another?  If so, ponder for a moment where you would be had you never met that person, had that experience, made that decision, or taken that opportunity. (more…)

A Price Too High (Part 1)


Most of the trouble I got into when I was a teenager happened during the summer months.  I was not a bad kid but with no school, my friends and I had extra time to invent a fair amount of mischief.  During the school year there was less mischief and less trouble because I was doing things. I was busy.  When the school day ended, I went to practice where I was in the care of some amazing coaches, teachers, and advisers, and I was with friends who shared similar interests.  I wanted to be at these activities.  They offered me a chance to discover parts of myself, my personality, and to develop a positive identity. (more…)

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