Teaching is a noble profession. Teachers battle the powers of darkness. We wage war on ignorance. You win some; you lose some.

But I believe in progress, that the forces of history are on our side.

I teach Language Arts. I know of no way to communicate the skills necessary to an artist without being an artist myself. To that end, I model the behaviors of an artist toward his craft and art for my students. I write when they write. I read when they read.

They share their work with me, and we collaborate in a search for truth and beauty, a fullness of expression, a journey of discovery.

I believe in reading to and with students aloud. I believe in an inflected language. I believe in a normative grapholect — a written language with rules, which one can knowingly break.

I believe that what Flannery O'Connor said is true, that "A writer's task is not to solve the mystery of life, but to deepen it." For that reason, I detest the limitations placed on learning and the blunting of our purpose manifested in mandated testing.

The more you test, the less you learn.

I believe that how to read is not the problem.

Why to read and what to read are the questions that need to be answered.

And I believe that teachers are meant to lead, not follow.

Shamrock McShane