MAKING FREEDOM

It’s good for me to give some thought now and then to the freeing aspect of English teaching. We’re all fond of freedom, including my fidgety teenage students, but too seldom do I consider the ways that freedom can find us as we work our way through my curriculum. It’s freeing, for instance, to simply see something in a written sentence that you didn’t see before, or to set words side by side in a refreshing way, or to listen to a student speak about a poem with force and wisdom.  Each of those small, daily occurrences can bring a bit more freedom to our lives that so often seem small and restricted. In that fashion, English class, as run-of-the-mill as it might be, can set my students and me free in small but distinguishing ways.