My Mission

As a teacher of literature, I make it my mission to help my students see the interconnectedness of all things.

My students will sometimes ask me during a lesson, “Why do we need to know about this stuff?” They are teenagers and I forgive them for asking. I smile and ask the question right back. I love my students, but I won’t answer the questions for them. Not questions like that, anyway. Somewhere inside of them they already know why I teach what I teach and how I teach it. Invariably, they have been able to answer the question on their own.

Literature and the other arts do not exist in a vacuum. No artist ever created a work completely divorced from the society that created him. But rather, as Dewey points out, “art is a product of culture, and it is through art that the people of a given culture express the significance of their lives, as well as their hopes and ideals.”

I long help my students see what I see as an interconnectedness between all things. Science, mathematics, literature, history and art are not separate entities. They are all products of the culture from which they spring. I argue that in every time there needs to be an integrated curriculum of study that helps to illuminate the connections between what may seem to be disparate disciplines.

Most arts programs ask students to be able to learn to see details, understand relationships, see how parts contribute to making the whole, and learn to think creatively. It seems most clear to me that these are skills that are both readily transferable and highly valuable in all different learning environments, regardless of subject. Furthermore, such skills are imperative once students reach the “real world”, both inside the workplace and the home.

To deny one’s self art experience is to neglect the opportunity to fully develop as a valuable contributing member of our society, particularly in these difficult times. As a result, I strive on a daily basis to open art experience to more people.