Sometimes...sometimes I get frustrated because I never, ever have enough time to write. School takes so many hours a week between grading papers and preparing for class that writing gets squeezed into flat spaces that never materialize.
Spring break was a gift. I got hours of writing done.
And then days happen like today. Good discussions, fun stuff happening in all my classes. We talked about understanding people from vastly different backgrounds, within the context of Apartheid in South Africa.
In Humanities, we talked about the French Revolution and the oppressive aristocracy and need for revolt and change. We had a great time watching and laughing with Sister Wendy as she looked at art born from that Revolution.
Tonight, my Comp class read and analyzed Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from the Birmingham Jail (a longish excerpt), and everybody got it. They understood that an absence of equality and justice within a calm segregated society may be peaceful but is what MLK called a negative peace. They understood that tension had to be created in order for justice to come to fruition. They worked hard to understand all of MLK's analogies, and the UNDERSTOOD that MLK was happy to be called an extremist, considering the company it put him with: Socrates, Abraham Lincoln, Jesus, Amos, Martin Luther, and Thomas Jefferson. Days like this make me glad I'm a teacher, make me glad I get to do what I do. I am grateful.
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