Finding Mr. Schrupp
"Mr. Schrupp's Final Lesson" by Jeff Seidel in the Detroit Free Press is a nice story about a beloved teacher. But what really stands out is the way Seidel connects with readers by telling them how he found it.
I'm often asked: How do you find the stories you write? And it's hard to come up with a good answer.
Some stories are obvious, amazing tales so incredible they have to be written. But other stories are different. They come at you sideways. They pop up and go away and come back and bug you until you take a second look and realize there is something special here.
And that's how I came across the story of an exceptional teacher named Bob Schrupp, who died Oct.2 in a car accident while driving to get chips and salsa for his students.
On Saturday morning, before my son's football game, I was talking to a parent by the bleachers.
"My son Ethan is dedicating this game to his teacher," Mike Mackie said. "He was killed in a car accident."
Later, while on assignment to write a story about Halloween costumes, Seidel met two more boys who were dedicating their games to Mr. Schrupp.
At that moment, I realized that the Halloween costumes were secondary. There was something bigger here, something more important and profound, something that might even explain why we like Halloween so much. Halloween costumes are about fantasy and play. They are about escape. And the real story on this Saturday afternoon -- from a football field to a soccer field to a store in West Bloomfield -- was Bob Schrupp.
http://www.freep.com/article/20081011/FEATURES01/810110368
http://www.freep.com/article/20081010/NEWS03/81010061