It's been a long time since I've posted on here because I thought no one was reading it, and I've been busy. I just saw I had a comment from Dan so I decided to post again. I'm actually in Arkansas right now with my family for my brother's orientation at the University of Arkansas. I can't believe he's about to start college! He's only two years younger than me, but it makes me feel so old (yes, twenty-year-olds can feel old too). Being here has inspired me to really indulge my own college experience. There are so many times that I take it for granted. "I'm so tired of school." "I don't want to go to class." Yet, there are people in every nook and cranny of this world who would do anything to get the opportunities staring me in the face.
Being here has also reminded me of why I want to teach and reiterated what I learned in Switzerland (see Aggieinthealps.blogspot.com). One of the foundations at U of A is inquiry--creating life long learners. That is something I truly believe in and want to emphasize in my teaching. Life isn't just about cramming a bunch of "stuff" in your brain between the ages of 5 and 22. It's about learning the basics to inspire deeper learning, which leads to passion, which leads to expertise, which leads to wanting to know more and more and more. William Butler Yeats says, "“Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.” I totally agree. For pleasure or for professional development, learning is not a state of life, it's a state of mind. As a teacher, I should live out this out if I'm going to "preach" it. And I plan to.
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