As of late

As of late, I have been toying with various ideas for short stories and novels.  It has been quite some time since I sat down and wanted to write anything so involved; I have mostly been focused upon my professional life.  A recent move to a different state, a change in personal roles to pseudo-housewife, and a sick feeling unpleasantly blossoming in the pit of my stomach as I watch our government continually pour the acid of capitalism upon education have all combined to realign my vision.  I do not wish to simply scrape a living out of this mess anymore.  I need to contribute something; I need to leave some mark of my mind, however covered over it may become, to stand in my place as proof that I did not go quietly.

This realization has prompted me to re-examine the career I am so forcibly involved in sustaining--education in this country is dying, despite the best efforts of thousands of dedicated and effective teachers.  Many of these educators could reach minds like never before if our system did not demand every ounce of energy, every second of time and every cent of one's paycheck to achieve testing margins and continually realign course materials with state and school scopes and sequences. Many of these educators never find the opportunity to become an active voice within their subjects' ongoing development; they are too busy attempting to teach students meaningful lessons while fulfilling the auxiliary state-mandated, federal-funding-dependent requirements.  The students and teachers deserve more from an experience that lasts decades.

 If the US government gives me the opportunity to set foot in front of a classroom again, I would sincerely like for my students to know that I have been active in this field of English--that I have communicated beyond academia, beyond my assumed social groups, and beyond aspirations I once held.  If I am to teach expression, communication, the betterment of self through hard work and determination, then I must model and exude these.  Otherwise, what right do I have to teach this subject?

Let Diogenes have his sunlight, for the Stoic will become the sun itself.