“Reading opened up the world” (Rose 21).
I just read that sentence in Lives on the Boundary by Mike Rose, a book assigned to me for one
of my classes. I’ve done a lot of thinking about what kind of teacher I want to
be and what kind of teacher I will be, and that sentence succinctly states a
lot of what I want to convey.
I want to give kids an opportunity to better their lives
through reading and writing. I want to expand their horizons. I want to teach
them about our civic responsibilities, which Randy Bomer, author of Building Adolescent Literacy in Today’s
English Classroom, agrees is important. He says, “It’s essential that
[students] be ready to participate in democratic communities, which means not
just reading to become informed about those issues that may require a vote but
participation well beyond that” (8). I want to encourage that participation.
