Making Mischief While Searching for Love
Some books tell you about someone’s life. Others leave you thinking about your own.
Ted Walch spent more than five decades teaching young people to look closely at movies, stories, the world around them, and themselves. He was a teacher, theater director, film lover, and lifelong maker of mischief.
For the last thirty years of Ted’s life, he taught a class to high schoolers called "Cinema Studies." He taught at a high school in Hollywood, so it was no surprise that his students were predisposed to the subject matter. Even so, the enduring popularity of the class inspired Ted to keep teaching, all the way up to his death at age 80 in 2022.
Year-in-year-out, he marveled that one film stood out as the student’s favorite: The 400 Blows, François Truffaut’s landmark 1959 film about a troubled teenager. Why this film?
The question kept coming at Ted - why did this old black and white movie resonate so deeply with generation after generation of his students?
In 2013, at age 71, Ted went looking for answers.
His journey took him to Paris, but it also brought him back through his own childhood, family, classrooms, theaters, friendships, mistakes, and a lifetime of unexpected discoveries.
The result is a memoir that is funny, candid, irreverent, and profoundly moving. Ted writes with the curiosity of someone who never stopped learning and the humor of someone who never completely outgrew the mischievous boy he once was.
And the further you follow Ted’s story, the more you find yourself thinking about your own.
Who were you before you became the person you are today? Which people and experiences changed you? What parts of your childhood never really left? And what does a lifetime teach us about love?
You don’t need to have known Ted, attended one of his classes, or even seen The 400 Blows to find something meaningful in these pages.
This is Ted’s story. But the questions belong to all of us.
Ted completed What Are We Going to Do with the Kid? shortly before his passing. His family is now working to bring his book to readers everywhere.
Our goal is 750 preorders by January 20, 2027.
Every preorder helps move this remarkable memoir closer to publication.
Whether you were one of Ted’s students, a friend, a fellow teacher, or someone discovering him for the very first time, we’d love for you to be part of bringing his story into the world.
Preorder your copy today. Consider ordering an extra for someone who has made a difference in your life.
Ted spent a lifetime showing up for others. Now it’s our turn to show up for Ted.