Steve Davidson’s 17 Stories: Students Finding Meaning Through Teaching and Service debuted from Seidlitz Education this summer. This inspirational book highlights the power students have to make a difference—for themselves and for their communities—when they’re encouraged to find meaning and passion in service.
17 Stories is a collection of testimonies from Davidson’s students about their personal experiences with service and the impact it has had on their lives. As the common denominator behind these students’ success, Davidson is clearly an educator to be reckoned with. As John Seidlitz says in the foreword to 17 Stories, “He has the biggest heart for his students I think I’ve ever seen, and he’s a very unorthodox, out-of-the-box thinker.”
But don’t take our word for it. We wanted you to have a chance to meet Steve Davidson firsthand. So here he is, introducing himself, the service program he created, and the book that we can’t wait to share with you later this summer.
17 Stories Takes Root
by Steve Davidson
My discovery of the kind of teaching and learning that service involves began with my English dean asking me, “Do you think you can get your advanced placement and gifted and talented seniors to help tutor our English Language Learners during their lunches?”
But before I go there, let me back up and tell you a little bit about how I got to the high school English classroom in the first place. First, the bona fides: I am an educator with almost 30 years’ experience, both in the public and parochial sectors. I hold two master’s degrees, one in English Literature and Language and the other in Educational Leadership. I served as a combat medic with the United States Army Reserves during the Gulf War. I am a humanist, striving to live a fair and honorable life without the expectation of reward, and I believe love is the greatest of all things.
Academically, my plan involved working toward a Ph.D. and teaching at the college level. This plan changed, however, as during my academic pursuits an uptick in wars, genocides, and other crimes against humanity played out throughout the world. Due to this observation, and what I experienced in war, I made an abrupt change. I could not stand idly by and watch another generation of young people know only the ugliness of the world. I made myself ready for the high school classroom.
So, when my dean made this request, I was excited to expose my “high-flying seniors” to the opportunity to give of their time and intellect to tutor students from all over the globe (whom they had no idea existed on their campus), I immediately agreed to create a unique tutoring environment. This gave birth to the MacTEACH Tutoring Program.
In its beginning, I designed the lunchtime tutoring period so each of my students would meet with a select English Language Learner (ELL) based upon what the respective ELL teacher requested. Not until I witnessed the utter frustration and bewilderment on the faces of both my students and the ELL students did I realize this tutoring effort would be no common exercise in teaching and learning. I realized I was bringing together students from very different learning environments and expecting immediate successes. I was wrong. You see, for the most part, academic achievement came relatively easy for my students. As tutors, however, they were far less adept, and they were shocked at their inability to impart knowledge in a way that could really reach their mentees. As for the ELL students, I had done nothing for them but further challenge their self-esteem, self-worth, and sense of belonging.
As we realized the importance of first building relationships between the tutors and the tutees, the tutoring program soon took flight, and it’s hard to explain the majesty I witnessed as students began breaking language barriers and forging unforeseen relationships.
While we celebrated this success, it was only the beginning. I had no idea what was waiting for my teaching life, and the lives of select tutors I came to know over the years, who were silently suffering for personal tragedies well hidden from others because of their “high-flyer” status.
As the on-campus tutoring settled into its original purpose, we soon found ourselves branching out. We had more than 40 tutors serving as many children as possible—both ELL students and at-risk elementary students—each morning before school. Soon, the small church across from the campus, which was taking care of hundreds of Burmese refugees new to the area, requested our assistance supporting the refugees’ academic needs. Soon thereafter, the MacTEACH Burmese Refugee Program was created. Every Tuesday and Thursday evening, some 50-plus MacTEACH tutors would meet in the school’s library to provide special tutoring needs to more than sixty Burmese refugee children. It seemed like overnight, what began as a tutoring effort to assist on campus ELL students turned into an all-out effort very much based upon social, academic, and emotional pillars. No longer strictly focused on tutoring, our organization became known as the MacTEACH Tutoring and Outreach Program for its more than 10 respective programs.
Surprise Impact: Changing Tutors’ Lives
Because our relationships now spanned beyond the classroom, I became closer to my MacTEACH students. As a result, many of them began sharing their personal stories with me, and I learned about the demons they were battling behind those high GPAs. I took it upon myself to share with them my personal road toward healing: service to and for others. I explained how I believe that when we are in service to and for others, it helps place our personal issues in a more balanced and healthier sphere. I then challenged these students to take on my philosophy and a greater service role within MacTEACH. As I watched these young lives step out of their respective dark shadows, I recognized an amazing transformation taking place within each of the students. Students who were once hurting were now realizing new and exciting lives. As a teacher, I needed to share this experience with other educators, even students. So began my work toward the writing of 17 Stories: Students Finding Meaning Through Teaching and Service.
Inside 17 Stories
Each story inside 17 Stories is a love story of its own. Each of the uniquely courageous former MacTEACH students who contributed to this book tells their story of successfully overcoming personal issues by giving themselves over to the way of the servant heart. MacTEACH helped save their lives, and it helped save mine, too, refocusing my commitment as an educator. It is my hope that the book inspires teachers and students. I hope to bring to life within each reader a spirit ready to take on new challenges, despite the personal burdens we carry, and to show readers that by living more purposeful lives, we live more abundantly.
17 Stories: Students Finding Meaning Through Teaching and Service is available from Amazon and the Seidlitz Bookstore!
Seidlitz Education 