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| Delaware Bay, Jersey side |
Death does not come to most of us in a day. Blame Lughnasadh.
I teach, and as each year approaches, I question why I teach. I think everybody who teaches owes it to their students to address this question.
If you cannot answer this, not saying you should quit. We all need to eat. But I think you owe it to your kids to tell them that you are not sure why you teach.
I will tell my kids why I teach. I do every year. It's between me, my kids and their families, and my administration (who have backed me for years, a huge part of why I continue to love what I do).
To teach to change the world is too damn abstract--spitting into the wind changes the world, changing the world is easy. Manipulating the world is a whole 'nother topic.
But I still love what I do, so I'll keep doing it.
And, BONUS!!!!, I'll keep lolling in the bay in late summer.....
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2 comments:
I try to make this explicit to my students and especially to the parents. I teach because I am a reading evangelist. Not reading well is what gets our world in a pickle like the one it's in - if we let someone else read for us and tell us what something says (bible, laws, news, small print in the terms of service, a contract) we run a greater risk of making fools of ourselves, of getting on the wrong bus, as it were. To read is to think, and to think for ourselves is a gift. That is why I teach - because I want to give students a space to think for themselves in the company of other thinkers.
Dear Kate,
Thank you for this. I'm still pondering my response to my own question, but trust I will answer it as well as I can once the kids are back.
I apologize for my late reply--apparently I disabled my email from my blog comments.
~Michael
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