Tag Archives: pain

On A Scale Of . . . by Wendy Kennar

Picture of a checkmark options under emojis, smiling, sad and in between
 

Wendy Kennar is the 1st place winner of Streetlight‘s 2026 Essay/Memoir Contest Within my first few years of teaching, the district’s grading system changed. Instead of the familiar A, B, C, D, F letter grades for academic achievement, students would now be graded on a 4, 3, 2, 1 scale. Many teachers at our school, including new teachers like myself and veterans with over a dozen years’ of experience, didn’t like this new system, mainly because it was so vastly different from the traditional grading system everyone knew and understood so well. I believed the change from … Continue reading On A Scale Of . . . by Wendy Kennar

Erik and George by Ty Phelps

Photo of doll
 

  Erik awakens full of pain, lying in a hospital bed in a propped position, his throat sore from the tube that snaked down into his mouth and nose, his limbs heavy and bruised. His head feels like it belongs to someone else. The lights are low in his hospital room and he hears the soft whir of machines. No one is in the room with him that he can see. Panic floods his heart as he remembers the accident: the whirl of lights, the spinning crush of metal. And ten-year-old George, his son, in … Continue reading Erik and George by Ty Phelps