ROBERT L MITCHELL

After HS I attended the U of ILL as a student of architecture--2years, then a 2-year apprenticeship before being drafted.
BSc Mathematics / teaching certification, Elmhurst College
Service in the Vietnam War: Combat Helicopter Pilot
27 years teaching secondary school, math, English, history
Author 3 books:
NURTURING THE SOULS OF OUR CHILDREN: Education and the Culture of Democracy (2005);

JOURNEY TO MYRTOS: Vietnam to Crete--Healing the Wounds of War (2011);
THE TRIAL OF THE INITIATE: Transforming the Warrior Spirit (2012)
Two-volume memoir of my service in Vietnam as a combat helicopter pilot, and my 12-year odyssey of healing, transformation and reintegration after the war. NOT just another war story but a REAL adventure. I had the opportunity to live in Germany, France, Greece, Tunisia, Mexico and Morocco.
See Amazon.com for synopsis and reviews of these books.

TEACHER: Seeking the Vocational Archetype (2023) A memoir/essay covering my first 15 years in the classroom and my understanding of the purpose of education.

2006-2018: I am retired from teaching and acting again (I was 1963 class actor):
short film 2011 "From Hell to Here" ( A Vietnam Vet battles PTSD / drama / lead role)
To Kill a Mockingbird, professional theater 2012

2019-2024 Lived in Mexico, writing, researching for another book, and lecturing internationally on education, child development and democracy.

2024: In August I moved to Capitola, CA, on the Monterey Bay where I am currently completing a book on the K-12 curriculum: EDUCATION FOR A CULTURE OF DEMOCRACY, due out later in 2025.

Great times working with English teacher, Jim Eitrem, on all the school plays. Jim was still there when I returned to OPRF HS as a math teacher briefly 1984-86, before moving to California.
As some of you who attended the services at Postlewait Funeral Home, across Lake Street from the High School, may remember, my mother died during finals week our freshman year. I returned to school the following day having to take my Biology final. Mr Fordyce put me in his office to take the multiple choice exam, behind the storeroom that was behind the classroom, and closed the door. "Inadvertently" he left the door between the classroom and the storeroom open. He was in the classroom grading freshman biology finals with his seniors. "34-C", "35-A", "36-B" and so on, I heard him call out the seniors grading tests, in an unusually strong voice. Some little moments of compassion and kindness you just never forget.