Teach {31 Days of Five-Minute Free Writes}

I had an extraordinary experience with being homeschooled. My parents poured out teaching day after day for twelve years and beyond. In the second half of my homeschool experience I also had video teachers who taught Algebra II and Chemistry and British Literature. Later I had college professors who drilled Bible and United States History and Early Childhood Development.

When I think back on those teachers, I recall a few specific facts they instilled.
I remember my mom using mayonnaise jars and gallon milk jugs to teach me units of measure in first grade. I remember Mrs. Schmuck teaching poetic meter in eighth grade, her voice gently exaggerating the emphasis on stressed syllables. In my sophomore year of college, Mr. Willems expounded on genetics with a level of humor and nonchalance that only a bespectacled Frenchman can achieve.

But these aren’t the chief impressions those teachers left with me.

What I remember most is that each of them cared about me and they wanted me to care about learning.

I think that is what it means to truly teach.

This post is part of 31 Days of Five-Minute Free Writes, an exercise in writing a timed, prompted post every day during the month of October. For me, it's a challenge to move beyond prideful perfectionism, to write more freely, and to share more openly.