Since 1984, I l have loved my work as a proud California public school educator. I have been a high school history teacher, a high school principal, assistant superintendent of human resources, and a superintendent in both Manhattan Beach and Placentia-Yorba Linda. I officially retired on July 1, 2023. My wife Jill is also a public school educator, and we are enjoying our life as empty nesters. Our two sons are out of the house – Ryan is an attorney in Sacramento and Dawson is a junior at Colorado School of Mines. I relish talking, writing, and thinking about parenting, public education, family, retirement, all things California and Arkansas, bicycling, swimming, cooking, bbq, golf, Evernote, and Big Green Eggs.
I use this website to share my stories, my books that I read, and my favorite recipes. I feel fortunate to have friends and family from all of my experiences over the years, and so many of them are regular readers of my posts. I also have readers whom I have not yet met, and I am grateful for them too. My favorite posts are the ones that create dialogue through the comments.
If you’d like to receive an email whenever I put out a new post, please click here.
Thanks for your interest, and I hope my musings make you think, reflect, and laugh, at least a little.
– Mike
Dear Dr. Matthews,
Thank you for writing very thoughtful articles. Your article on “Creating a Culture of Inclusion” was very insightful. I agree with your article in its entirety. You are right about Middle School children, but they are difficult to change at their age. They were the same when I was in middle school in 1912-1913. At that time Middle School was for 7th and 8th graders only. I still feel it should be only for those two grades. I think it will always be a difficult age group and I don’t think the 6th graders are ready for Middle School and for the testiness of the 7th and 8th graders. Their teachers can hardly manage them. Thank you for addressing this problem.
Mike, You hit the nail on the head for me this morning: “Life is better lived when we are living to get better.” Thank you, brother!
Thanks, Pat. This will sound wrong, but I love that line too! I even looked it up on Google to make sure I wasn’t remembering it from something I read. I’m glad it hit home for you.