Former South Windsor Teacher to Speak at Folklore and Fable Book Store

After publishing Dance Like a Wave of the Sea: A Teacher's Letter to His Students, David Olio is scheduled to speak about his new memoir on Thursday evening, April 3 at 6:30 pm. He has partnered with Folklore and Fable, an independent bookstore in Colchester, CT. He will sign books following.

Mr. Olio taught at South Windsor High School from 1996-2015, until a bright and curious student brought a controversial poem to his senior English class ten years ago on February 25, 2015. David considered it a teachable moment, but the experience would change his teaching life as his decision to allow his class to read and examine the poem was rejected by his administrators. Despite a twenty-three-year career of joy-filled and discovery-driven teaching, the South Windsor School district moved to fire him, effectively ending his secondary teaching.

His is a memoir of his own learning and teaching life, animated by inquiry but stifled by a kind of censorship that would serve as harbinger for the twenty-first century confrontation educators currently face in the United States. His story includes a reflection on the silences prompted by cultural bias anchored by institutional power. He harnesses writing itself in a heart-felt letter to his former eighty-six students about the joy of learning and the value of open, democratic conversation. He will share his experience in writing his memoir about teaching, learning, and the integrity of inquiry.