In every story I have heard, good teachers share one trait: a strong sense of personal identity infuses their work.

... the stranger is not a threat but an opportunity to grow in my view of reality, to grow in my own sense of possibility

Violence is what happens when we don't know what else to do with our suffering.

Every young person needs some adult who's just wild and crazy about them!

Teaching, like any truly human activity, emerges from one's inwardness, for better or worse. As I teach I project the condition of my soul onto my students, my subject, and our way of being together. The entanglements I experience in the classroom are often no more or less than the convolutions of my inner life. Viewed from this angle, teaching holds a mirror to the soul. If I am willing to look in that mirror and not run from what I see, I have a chance to gain self-knowledge-and knowing myself is as crucial to good teaching as knowing my students and my subject.

The winters will drive you crazy until you learn to get out into them.

Relational trust is built on movements of the human heart such as empathy, commitment, compassion, patience, and the capacity to forgive.