This is Rumbel Strip.

There are parts of teaching that are excruciatingly boring,

like giving a spelling test, God help me.

I would sing the words, you know,

colony. the kids are like oh my god

the kids are like oh my god

that's daphne Kalmar.

Daphne was a school teacher for over 20 years.

She taught in California, in Massachusetts, and then in Vermont.

I think it's fair to say that she was one of those teachers, one of the exciting and inspiring ones,

one of the teachers who sees every kid.

I met her through my friend Tobin Anderson, the three of us met up in a diner in Hardwick where she lives, and I liked

her immediately.

Maybe it was a way that she appreciated the waitress who used to be a student of hers, or maybe

it was because I could tell right off that she doesn't have the kind of boring composure of some grown-ups. It seemed like the conversation could have gone anywhere and maybe ended up in a road trip to a corn maze or something, like she'd be gamed for that if it came up.

Now Daphne is a children's book author and she's just published her first book called A Stitch in Time. We sat in her kitchen by an open window.

It had that late summer sound to it, the sound I associate with the beginning of school here in Vermont.

We talked about her new book, but mostly we talked about

what it's like to fall in love with a new batch of kids every September and then let

them go. Welcome. I was a teacher for So, welcome.

I was a teacher for 20 years.

I went into teaching a little bit late because I lived all across the country doing all kinds of odd jobs. I was a short order cook for a number of years.

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