… I get the chance to just talk about Beacon. I love those moments.
I was visiting a friend tonight, and I was talking about my senior English class. She, because she’s a good friend, said, "Kids must be dying to get into your English class."
And I said, "No… because if they don’t have me, they have Brian who teaches them to question what they see in our media by examining everything from Neil Postman to Andy Warhol to Don DeLillo. Or they have Mary who convinces them that it’s o.k. to call Howard Zinn and Spike Lee and ask them what they think social justice is. Or they have Jon who shows them the richness of the city they live in through literature. Or they have Joann who teaches them that they can write plays, not just read them. Or they have Kate who teaches them that there is a through line of dissent from the works of William Blake to the books of Margaret Atwood."
And yes, I really did say that. And yes, when I finished, it forced me — as it always does — to come face to face with how amazing the place that I work really is.