In this episode, Dr. David Bloome recounts his initial disinterest in schooling, stemming from negative personal experiences and societal tensions during his youth in Southern Connecticut. He discusses his entry into education through Teacher Corps, his time in challenging schools like Cleveland, and his eventual move into higher education.

Dr. David Bloome is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University. His research and scholarship have involved collaborations with colleagues, teachers, and doctoral students. His scholarship focuses on the uses of written language in and out of classrooms. He has held several leadership positions in the field including President of the National Council of Teachers of English, National Conference on Research in Language and Literacy along with serving as an editor for Linguistics and Education, Reading Research Quarterly, and Research in the Teaching of English. Dr. Bloome has received several awards for his research including The John J. Gumperz Memorial Award for Distinguished Lifetime Scholarship from the AERA Special Interest Group on Language and Social Processes, the Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Conference on Research in Language and Literacy, and the Oscar Causey Award from the Literacy Research Association, among others. In 2008, he was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame and in 2011 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association.