Life's Passion

I love teaching. Not 'I like teaching,' but I love teaching. It has its days, when I want to quit and run away to the beach, but most days . . . most days are good.

I love the kids I teach, too. I'm blessed with smart kids. Kids who really do want to learn (even if they're too cool to admit it some days). Kids who work hard and try harder and sometimes just blow my mind with how they pick up some really difficult ideas.

Like my juniors and transcendentalism. Now, granted, they didn't want to study the philosophy of a bunch of old dead guys in American history. And they really didn't want to write transcendental connection essays for me.

But.

They did it. They grumbled and tried to get me to move tomorrow's deadline to Monday (ha!), but they did it. So during the last week or so, I've read sixty-odd essays linking Thoreau and Emerson to more modern authors. Sounds grueling, but I probably enjoyed those well-written and thoughtful short essays more than anything I've graded all year. They were thinking, and it showed in the writing. They were learning, and it showed in the thinking.

Darn, my kids are smart.

I'm going to miss them come May, when they get ready to travel down the deck to Wayne's World.

***

{PS: I know you lurk. You've given yourselves away the last week or so. Go ahead and admit you've enjoyed transcendentalism just a little bit. Leave me a comment telling me what you got out of the unit. The best comment (or comments) just might be worth bonus points or a homework pass. Oh, and by the way, I say you're smart even when you're not listening.}