13 June 2016: Last summer, I taught Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe right after attending the Pride Festival in DC for the first time. The book went over really well with that class and I remember feeling hopeful and inspired by the confluence. But I am not naive. I know we are a long way from having books like this one taught regularly in the school system. This past Saturday, as I prepared for Monday's class, I wrote in my notes, "'pie in the sky' book of the semester," meaning it was a book I was discussing with these teachers-in-training because we could hope and dream that someday they will be able to have a book like this one in their classrooms. That was on Saturday.
After Sunday's horrific events, I still think it's "pie-in-the-sky," but man, I want my students to be able to grab that pie. How vitally important these kinds of books are!
So yeah...Monday's "good thing?" My wonderful, creative, smart, compassionate, and energetic students, six teachers-in-training who of course recognized another confluence (this time, much darker)--this book and our national tragedy. They wanted to talk about this book, about Orlando, and about how we can use our classrooms to help change the world. Yes, that's idealistic and sentimental, but so what? We need ideals and sentiment and love. That's the only way we'll win.
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