In our first two weeks of Building Technology Class, Polly and I leaned heavily on a fellow non-traditional—i.e., older—student, as we experimented with the circular saw, router and brad gun. So capable, patient and helpful was this classmate, in handsome silver-framed readers and camouflage ball cap embroidered with a Bible verse, that we finally had to ask: What gives? If you know how to do all of this, why are you here?

Turns out, he was in our class only temporarily, to learn how to teach the Building Construction Technology curriculum. Soon he’ll start his new job at a state correctional facility, teaching inmates in the final stretches of their sentences, to give them useful tools for life outside prison. Polly and I will miss his patient mentorship. I hope his new students appreciate him.