When Chris moved from England to Canada, he desperately wanted to be just another face in the halls. He wanted to fit in, to go unnoticed, even to be liked. That dream was interrupted by the four fat boys grinning from ear to ear while they were pounding on him. They were hungry to see how long he could withstand this beating before he shed tears or yelled for help. These schoolboys and some of their buddies had been beating on Chris every day since he'd arrived. It did, however, open up an opportunity for Chris to find his passion in the spiral of life and help him to uncover the surprising discovery that the most terribly human moments-the ones we want to pretend never happened-are the very same moments that make us the people we are today.
Touchdown in the Classroom is a mostly true memoir that is alternately heartwarming and heartbreaking, poignantly inspiring yet starkly revealing of what Chris believes and has seen and done in education. There are the stories behind the stories, and with them come the failures, the hopes, and lessons learned that make us who we are.