"Oh Captain, My Captain. "

After yesterday's tragic news I have postponed my choice for this weeks blog to look back at inspiration. I remember watching Dead Poets Society in high school,  and then again in college. I was not only inspired by Robin Williams' performance but from the moment the students pulled out the pages to the last moment when the students stood up for him. From that moment on I wanted to inspire every student who crossed my path. I wanted to teach very was the easy way out, poems fed the soul, and unconventional may not be always accepted but it makes you strong.

So I set out on the conventional education path, I decided on secondary education. I took the classes, did the observation hours, and after one internship in the National Park I came to the proper realization I was on the wrong/right path. Yes, I needed to teach, yes I needed to show the world what history was, but not in a classroom. I had learned too much outside the classroom. Now I am not discrediting what I had learned from so many of my teachers and for them I am thankful. Yet it was the unconventional learning that has been equally important to getting me where I am right now.

You have read some of my exploits, from learning to sew, to learning to knit, I was on a strange path. My dad taught me how to fix my own car and that was something I could never learn in school. There was nothing outside my reach when I was learning outside the classroom. From the moment I stepped into the museums and parks the world was my oyster and I wanted to give that to someone else.

At my job I teach history teaching anywhere from 1 to 400 students of all ages everyday. I teach by telling, I teach by doing, and I teach by asking. Some days people walk up just wanting to know what the houses walls are made of, or what I am growing. Some days they want to know my life story and everyday I give them my best understanding of the answer. I stumble, I joke and I pause because that is what history is. Why do we try to approach learning in a happy little box when life isn't? I have seen people who spent there whole lives confused about something they learned in elementary school get it in 5 minutes after talking to my coworkers and I.

So here is to the unconventional, thank you Captain for teaching us that laughter is the best medicine and very is the easy way out.