When I choose the books/stories/articles my students will read, I try to find seemingly disparate works and ask the kids to make connections.  We just finished linking the themes of The Odyssey to Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories.  The kids understand that these (and all stories) are about the myths on which we base our lives.  Rushdie shows them how all stories stem from the ancient stories, and it is possible that the myths that survive are true.  And from these lofty ideas, I can help them learn to block out an essay, fine-tune their punctuation choices, expand the scope of their vocabulary, and figure out ways to remember what they read.  Reading, writing, and thinking.

Last week an off-hand comment agitated me enough to connect it to several other ideas floating around in my head.  It all has to do with figuring out ways to teach with passion.  It started with Obama’s speech on Tuesday in which he challenged us to roll up our sleeves and try harder to turn our country around.  Next, I was talking to a gifted, experienced teacher who felt it was too much pressure to ask a first-year teacher to design lessons from her passion.  Then last night, Kam and I watched the last episode of the fifth-season of The Wire.  In the Features section of the DVD, we listened to various writers, producers, directors, and actors of the series talk about their desire to create a TV program worth watching.  One advisor said that The Wire unflinchingly exposed what is broken about our schools, law enforcement, government, families in this country, and she hoped that someone would watch and figure out a way to fix this mess.  This is why I’ve stayed in teaching so long.  If we could afford to place our hopes and energy into only one area, I believe it should be schools.  Many of the problems and solutions can be addressed right there.  We can’t go into the homes to straighten out the families, but we can use our classrooms as a place to inspire the next set of parents.  They’re sitting right in front of us. 

If we keep in mind that even at a very young age, everything we model in our classes will either make the kids decide that education is boring or, even worse, irrelevant, or we can inspire the kids to use the skills we are teaching to improve their lives and the lives of others.  We start with our own children, then other people’s children.  We can’t change everything, but we can influence the kids sitting in our classrooms to develop an image of themselves at their best and to make plans for a future that nurtures that best.  And it starts with what we demonstrate every single day when we stand in front of these kids.  To inspire to next generation, we have to be inspired ourselves, and the only way I know how to do that is to approach my job with passion.