Introduction

Welcome to Past Forward! L. P. Hartley opens his 1953 novel The Go‑Between with a line that still resonates: “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” His words capture the distance we often feel when we look back. Einstein unsettles that distance when he calls the boundary between past, present, and future “a stubbornly persistent illusion.” Time isn’t a set of sealed compartments. It’s a continuum we move through every day.

History reminds us that our lives unfold through contingency — the truth that things could have turned out differently — and agency, the choices people make that shape what happens next. Those two forces drive the stories we inherit and the stories we create. Past Forward works in that crossing. How do we interpret the stories that came before us, and how do those stories continue to shape our shared and personal lives today?

Teaching Journey

Some quick background: I graduated from West Fargo High School (North Dakota) in 1975 and earned a B.A. in History and Coaching Minor from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota in 1979.  I also earned a master’s degree from Minnesota State University Moorhead in 1985 with an emphasis on American History. After student teaching at Fargo South High School in the fall of 1978, my full-time career started at Appleton High School in 1979-80 (now part of the Lac qui Parle Valley School District after consolidation in 1990). l spent ten years at West Fargo High School in North Dakota (1980-1990) prior to coming to Black River Falls in the fall of 1990. I have been actively involved with coaching throughout my career and continue as a varsity assistant in Cross Country at BRFHS.

My Current Path

After 41 years of teaching high school history and politics, I pivoted to the world of virtual teaching starting in the fall of 2020 as a Lecturer through UW-Green Bay’s Dual Enrollment Access Academy. This is a continuation of work I started in 2014 with UW-GB’s First Nations Studies Department.  Starting in fall semester 2024, the class was also offered through the Rising Phoenix Program. I continue to co-direct the Falls History Project which I coordinated for 20 years at BRFHS. In addition, I remain an active contributor to Wisconsin First Nations, a website devoted to advancing the cause of First Nations history in our state. In the fall of 2025, I will start my 47th year of teaching.

This page reflects my areas of interest and current activities related to studying the past.  Thanks for the visit and please contact me if you have questions!