Passionate About...

Date Posted: 04.23.08

I love teaching but I can't wait for summer break. I need a break. I need to have time to actually write on this blog.

Someone on the fiendly atheist site asked a question about what people were passionate about. I answered it so I am going to post it here.

I am passionate about ethics. I believe that everyone should be able to think about what they believe. Then I want them to be able to, define, explain and defend it. Then they should damn well follow it. I loathe hypocrisy. My friends sometimes complain that my ideals are too rigid or perhaps to na�ve.

I am passionate about my books. I read a lot. I read any time I have a free moment. I like non-fiction and fiction equally. The Human Stain by Philip Roth is one of my favorites.

Politically I am passionate about health care and education.

I am passionate about my job. I am a high school teacher. I discovered very early on that as much as my students need education, education alone is not enough. I am a good English teacher. I have all the right test scores and statistics on paper. I teach them the things I am supposed to teach them, but that is not the part of the job that arouses my passion. If I wanted to teach for the intellectual stimulation of analyzing Jonathan Swift (which we read tomorrow), I would teach college.

I teach because I love the connection I can make with my students. I am passionate about them. I teach the average, every-day, often unnoticed kids. I want them to know that I notice them. They are hungrier for that notice than they are for Jonathan Swift. I want them to have self-expression, creativity and free thinking for at least a short time in their lives.

I am also passionate about art. I do stained glass, some flame work (that's new and I still suck), I paint, draw, sew, etc etc etc. I love these things. I love to learn about how things are made. I like everything from welding to weaving pine straw baskets. It is all great.

There are some other things but those are the big ones

Oh yeah�. And my 3 cats and my puppy-to-be.

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