A light-hearted and touching memoir of Bill Sherk’s 30-plus-year career as a Toronto high school history teacher with a creative flair and passion for his work.



Bill Sherk taught history to Toronto high school students for more than thirty years. With his dynamic, creative, and occasionally unorthodox teaching style, he instilled in his students a passion for history and learning. Sherk was loved by his students and remained in their memories long after graduation.

Keep Up If You Can is a light-hearted and touching memoir that will appeal to anyone who’s had a special teacher impact their life.

Fun facts:

He learned the names of all his students on the first day of school.

He assigned ancient names to his ancient history students. They called him Sherkules (SHERK-yoo-leez).

After reading Webster’s Dictionary cover to cover, he encouraged his students to coin new words, and many of these were published in his three dictionaries.

Firmly believing in physical activity, he would leap atop his desk and lead his students in an aerobic "Sherkout" to a rock-and-roll beat.