Countdown to our 35th Anniversary in May:
Bumps in the Road
By Allen A. Raymond, Publisher

The final memo in this series, to appear in our May issue, will mark the 35th Anniversary of Teaching K-8, and I'm still wondering what I will be able to say that conveys how I feel about you, about teaching and about education.

The song "Thanks for the memories" comes to mind, because that is how I feel. So, perhaps that will be my theme when I write to you in May.

But, speaking of memories, it is strange how most of us, if not all of us, remember the bumps in the road of life more vividly than we remember the good times. That's why more copies of a newspaper are sold when Congress cuts funding for education than when test scores improve.

So, taking my cue from that self-evident fact of life – we remember bad news, and bad news sells – here are just a few of the sometimes challenging bad-news events, culled from my memory bank, that seriously impacted our lives here at Teaching K-8.

In our first year we learned not to put manuscripts or artwork on the floor near the wastebasket. The nighttime cleaning crew provided a spotless office in the morning, but the materials we left on the floor had disappeared. It never happened again – we're fast learners – but once was too much.

I've told you of the time our printer – this memory is still a nightmare – used the wrong glue and all of the address labels fell off our magazines in post offices all over the country. The printer's finances were worse than mine, so I struck a deal with him: He would reprint the magazine and I would pay for the paper and postage. That way, neither of us would have to file for bankruptcy. Living like that is called "life on the edge." Avoid it if you can. It's scary.

A few years later, while on a business trip to Biloxi, MS, the owner of that same printing company phoned to say he was closing his plant. "But don't worry," he said. "I'll print your next issue at our Boston plant."

The magazine came out a month late, which was bad for our readers, very bad for our advertisers and horrible for me.

I selected a new printer in the midwest, and it was a good choice; they did great work for us for many years, but…(you guessed it)…one day I received a phone call and learned the company was bankrupt. Ours would be the last magazine it printed and, thankfully, that issue came out on schedule.

Lest you think we only had problems with printers, one day a man walked into my office and presented me with legal documents indicating I was being sued for $1,500,000. A wake-up call, if ever there was one. A family in California didn't like the way in which we had used a photo of its child, even though we had what our attorney felt was an ironclad release.

There goes the business, I thought.

After spending money I did not have on lawyers, we finally settled for $5,000…and even that was more than I could afford.

I'm sure I've said this before, but if the world seems to be crashing down upon you, as it so often has on me, give me a call.

Perhaps I can help, maybe not, but at least I'll provide a shoulder on which you can lean…and I'd like that.

Allen Raymond is the Editor/Publisher for Teaching Pre K-8.