Teacher and Author Genét Simone will be making the first stop of an Alaska book tour in Nome to promote her memoir, “Teaching in the Dark”. The book reflects on her transformative first year of teaching in Shishmaref in the 1980s and offers a blend of humorous anecdotes and thoughtful insights into the challenges and rewards of her experience in the small sub-Arctic village.
When Simone graduated from Western Washington University, the job market for English teachers was tight. She took on a job at a cafe to pay the bills while searching for her next step. Then, she stumbled upon a curious ad in a newspaper promoting an elusive teacher gig in Alaska.
“This particular position up there in Alaska was the very first one that actually said English teacher in it,” Simone recalled. “I was initially intimidated by the idea of going to Alaska, because I'd never been there before, but I think I'd been learning I'm the kind of person that will take the chance sight unseen, and so I just took the chance.”
Simone boarded the first of many flights from Washington to Alaska. Her final leg was from Nome to Shishmaref, a Bering Air flight she said she’ll never forget.
“I land in Shishmaref, I didn't even know it was an island. So that's a pretty funny opening scene of my awareness of that. Then we land the plane, and I have no idea where I'm going,” Simone said. “I assumed there would be like a little terminal and maybe someone there to meet me. There was nobody there to meet me.”
Simone was, however, greeted by crisp 40 degree air and 17 hours of sun, half the temperature and two more hours of daylight than her former home of Bellingham.
She quickly realized that everything she knew about teaching –everything she thought she knew about herself was about to be upended. The distinct odor of class-canceling whale harvests and learning how to literally teach in the dark during power outages was rewiring her senses. From this place of insecurity, Simone found an opportunity to grow.
“One of the reasons the book is titled 'Teaching in the Dark’ is because there was this constant groping in the dark, not really knowing what I was doing and who I was in that environment. I found really early on that the most important thing for me to do was to listen as much as possible to students and let my ego get kind of demolished. And then little by little, things started to shift around.”
- Genét Simone
These experiences helped her discover principles that would guide the rest of her teaching career, like the importance of building trust.
“I can definitely teach people how to read and how to write and how to express themselves. I was able to offer that, but no one's going to learn from you if they don't trust you. I think real learning is when you establish that connection with the people that you're working with,” Simone said.
To spread the word about her story, Simone is embarking on a three-stop book tour including a stop in Shishmaref. She says the trip has been a long time coming.
“Once I got my book published, I felt that I finally had something to give back to the village. As I was writing it, it was as much a testament to my own journey as a teacher and the ongoing life of being an educator as it was a tribute to the village. It's really important to me,” Simone said.
Simone’s brother and professional photographer Todd Winslow Pierce will join her to help document the journey. Their tour will take them to the Carrie M McClain Museum in Nome on October 20 at 2 p.m., Shishmaref October 22, and Juneau October 26. “Teaching in the Dark” is available now in both print and digital formats.
The following is a journal entry Simone wrote on August 31, 1984, just two weeks into her time in Shishmaref. Click the play button below to hear Genét Simone read the excerpt.
“It's early evening as I write this. The setting sun is bathing everything in gold and light. Blues are bluer, greens are greener, everything is alive with the wind. The sea is deep blue and moves without a sound. The sky goes on forever. It is an orange evening. It's shocking how life feels so fluid here, harmonious and free. Yet at school, that freedom is precisely what we intentionally try to control with our clocks and our rules. Don't we know Mother Nature has no curfew?
There is a peace curling its tendrils into me. It's palpable and cracking open my mind, releasing a self imposed pressure in my head that I didn't know was there. I'm growing new senses. I want to tell my students about the shifting going on inside of me, but it's not yet clear what it's about. I'm not sure how to reconcile where I am and where I'm from. I'm not sure what to still carry with me.”
- Genét Simone journal entry, August 31, 1984
