Day 146, Friday, May 09, 2008
Today I found particular satisfaction in our brief silent reading time at the start of each class. By habit, the students now enter my classroom very quietly, take out their books, and begin reading. For about eight minutes, we all sit together as a small community of serious readers. The only sound is the quiet classical music playing on my computer and the occasional turning of pages. At one point today I looked up from my book, and what I saw was a circle of young people deeply immersed in the pleasures of reading. I was tempted to set my book down and just take in the scene, the better to fully appreciate my good fortune. Here I was, a man of grandfatherly age (66) sitting and reading with students young enough to be my grandchildren. There was silence, concentration, deep thinking, and great peace in the room. I marveled at it all for a moment or two. How, I thought, does this kind of serenity come to be? How did I get so lucky?
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