Why I Teach

When I first meet the students in a class, I always share a poem with them: "Did I Miss Anything" by Tom Wayman. I like students to hear the poem in several voices. First, they listen to the voice in their head. Next, a few students volunteer to read the stanzas aloud. We annotate our notices and wonders. We discuss. We theorize. We infer.

Eventually, the students realize that this poem is a conversation. After being absent, a student has asked the teacher, "Did I miss anything?" The teacher has a variety of (possibly unsaid?) responses -- mostly sarcastic ones, oozing with frustration at the question the student has asked -- until the teacher finally says what's in the poem's final stanza:

Everything. Contained in this classroom

is a microcosm of human experience

assembled for you to query and examine and ponder

This is not the only place such an opportunity has been

gathered

but it was one place

And you weren’t here

It's true that we can't all be there all the time, but what I love about this is how much it honors the important work that students engage in every day. It is an honor and a privilege to be a guide, a witness, and a mentor to students engaging in this work, and I'm so, so grateful.