If you are going to spend your summer break frantically prepping to teach a new subject and designing your curriculum, at least looking out the window at Lake Champlain is a nice way to do it!
I'm really looking forward to teaching social studies. To get my head in the game I've been re-reading Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States." Here is one of my very favorite quotes of his:
“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
― Howard Zinn
I recently saw "Won't You Be My Neighbor" the documentary about Fred Rogers. It was delightful and made me realize that watching his show as a kid is probably just one more piece of my optimistic philosophy which tries to be focused on kindness and understanding. Maybe I can somehow pass on a small piece of that to the middle school kids I teach? That would be a win for sure! There needs to be a lot more kindness in the world right now.
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