Isms: Views on life in rural America

Approximately 20 years ago, I taught a student who, for the sake of this column, I’ll call him John.

To those who didn’t know John, he looked like any other typical high school male. His athletic, 6-foot 2-inch frame ducked every time he walked in my classroom, even though he was nowhere near hitting his head on the door frame.

John was smart, too. He excelled in English and his voracious appetite for reading and use of language (especially humor) set the stage for multiple classroom discussions. If I felt his classmates weren’t understanding a concept, I could count on John to explain it in a...