Barbara Olic-Hamilton

My familial and geographical roots color the way I look at the word "memory." My father was one of two children born in America after his family emigrated from Czechoslovakia. My passion for education evolved out of my second-generation refusal to wear the ethnic remnants that hung from his shoulders. My educational hunger allowed me to distance myself from my ethnic and familial heritage as I became the first person in my family to graduate from college. I became a teacher because I viewed education as the great equalizer that rewarded hard work and intelligence regardless of a person's race, sex or physical appearance.

After earning a masters degree in 1977 and moving 1800 miles west of my parents, I've continued to feed my educational hunger with courses in computers, teaching writing, technology, and women's studies. Now in my 28th year of teaching, I teach A.P. English Literature and English 12. I'm also the Chair of the Language Arts Department at Boise High School, Boise, Idaho.

My viewpoint has also been colored by having belonged to a writing group for the past fourteen years. Because of it, I've published personal essays, fiction, poetry, and professional articles on teaching ideas.

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Elizabeth Horn

I am a high school librarian, a stained glass artist, hand spinner, writer, and English teacher. My perspective is visual and metaphorical: self-understanding clarifies through the visual and mental search for metaphor. As a teacher of both American and world literature I discovered recurring themes exploring the common human concerns across cultures and time.

I use this search for metaphor/themes as a focal point when I travel, participate in summer seminars, teach, or conduct workshops for teachers. Learning for learning’s sake, a process I first enjoyed at a NEH seminar in 1988, showed me how to relish the exploration of American society in order to better understand who I am.

This curiosity was nurtured early by my father’s curiosity. He took us from a quiet upbringing in rural Wisconsin to tractor factories, museums, and historical monuments. He always had another question for the guide. I became a questioner. I enjoy a life rich with eclectic learning as a result. I now bring that curiosity and desire to search for metaphor in new places through the American Memory Program.


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