Jack Richards’ resume doesn’t suggest he’s the next Aldous
Huxley or George Orwell of the 21st century.
Jack Richards’ resume doesn’t suggest he’s the next Aldous Huxley or George Orwell of the 21st century.
At 77, the Gilroy author is making wine – drinking it – and sharing it with friends.
Richards lives on Burchell Road off Hecker Pass, where, together with his wife Linda, he practices the idyllic existence of a writer by tending to 225 vines that yield estate-bottled cabernet and chardonnay.
The 1956 San Jose State University alumnus mentored hundreds of Gavilan College athletes during his 20-year run as head basketball coach, taught English at Gavilan and
Abraham Lincoln High School in San Jose for a combined 35 years and has written material for a string of assorted genres including screen, stage, television and sports.
His capstone opus on the shortcomings of the education system published in July, however, titled “Dormant Enhancement,” confronts a different frontier than previous works such as “The Scramble Attack for Winning Basketball” or “Psychology of Coaching.”
“But who’s going to pick up a series of factual information about the problems our society faces?” Richards asked.
So he went literary, translating what he viewed as fact, to fiction.
“The things that have the most impact are those stories where we can identify with a character. Generally we want the character to succeed,” Richards said.
Richards decided a series of essays or lectures about cumbersome educational bureaucracy wouldn’t grab attention like the story of Sharon: Protagonist single mother of two, fighting to keep her 12-year-old son from being forced to enter a brain-numbing, futurized learning system that churns out conveyor belts of 16-year-old prodigies who graduate intellectually superior to their counterparts of the previous century.
The setting takes place in the year 2018 – where the failures of public schools, caused by a growing parental absence, a negative peer-group influence and a sexualized media-driven marketplace – have prompted a team of educators and scientists to create a program called Dormant Enhancement.
The program requires pupils 12 years of age to enter individualized cubicles and receive uninterrupted programming free of distraction and peer pressure.
Flash forward to 2024, where Sharon, a widower who moves back to the United States from Australia to live with her parents in Carmel, realizes her oldest son is now legally required to enter the program. Ensuing conflict sees Sharon endangering her own life as she battles the system.
The novel, which begins and ends with lines from Huxley’s “Brave New World Revisited,” is a commentary on the direction Richards sees the United States heading toward.
“I’ve always been influenced by (Huxley’s) reasoning and his look into the future,” he said. “I was profoundly affected by it.”
When asked what particular issues provided basis for his novel’s plot, Richards didn’t ramble a list of grievances.
He reached for his book, and cited a monologue straight from the text.
“Times have changed, and so have our challenges,” he read. “Gone are the days when we could speak with pride about literacy, curiosity and enthusiasm for learning. Focus must be spent on drugs, lack of respect for authority, standardized tests, electronic gadgetry, hostile parents.”
What are teachers supposed to do, Richards asked. Cower in the corner unless they can appease the critics? Dummy down the curriculum? Turn a blind eye to students who are disruptive? Teach the tests to the students so they can make themselves look good?
“Teachers after awhile become apathetic because they can’t win. Whatever they do, they’re going to get blamed for it,” said Richards, who admitted he has no overarching solutions.
But he isn’t apathetic. He said he’s putting observances on the table, with hopes the story will resound with readers.
“If I were to speak to a group, I wouldn’t say I have the answers,” he said. “I want to find out what people think.”
Prior to writing “Dormant Enhancement,” Richards mused if he should bother at all – but decided for the sake of causing some controversy and stimulating discussion, it was worth it.
“We got to start talking about this,” he said. “There has to be some solution out there.”
