I would like to say that today is a rare day, but that would be a lie. I've come to believe that the teaching profession is the greatest on the planet. I have had more time off from work this year than I had since high school....that's no joke. The pay is as bad as advertised, but it's the price one must pay to be at home on a Monday at 9:15 am. Fellow teachers, I'm sorry, but I'm blowing the lid off of our scam. Teachers love to complain about the kids, hours...etc, but I just can't allow it anymore. We get to read and talk for a living, and only for a few months at a time...We have the greatest job ever!
I got up early this morning, and am committed to finishing much studying today (I won't bore you with details), but I took a break a few minutes ago and did a couple of minutes of pleasure-reading. I am planning a potential philosophy curriculum for next year, so I picked up Rene Descartes' Discourse on Method to thumb through it. I came across a great passage that advocates liberal arts education, and I thought I might share it with you. It's a bit long, but I thought some of you might enjoy it.
"...the reading of all good books is like a conversation with the most eminent people of past centuries, who were their authors, and that it is even a studied conversation in which they reveal to us only the best of their thoughts; that oratory has incomparable powers and attractions; that poetry has very ravishing delights and sensibilities; that mathematics contains very subtle discoveries that can help very much to satisfy those who are curious, to facilitate all crafts, and to reduce human labour; that moral writings contain instructions and many encouragements to virtue which are very useful; that theology teaches us how to get to heaven; that philosophy provides ways to speaking plausibly about everything , and of making oneself admired by those who are less educated; that law, medicine and the other sciences bring honour and riches to those who practice them; and finally, that it is good to have studies them all, even those most superstitious and false among them, in order to know their real value and to protect oneself against being deceived by them" (Discourse, Part I).
I'm a tad jealous that you are off today, but you are right - teachers complain too much.
Do you have an answer for my question yet? Any ideas?
Jamie