Falling in love...

My first student walked in shyly. She didn't have much confidence and kept her head down. The job was to analyze a poem by Audre Lorde for her composition class. The poem was complex and dense and reading it was a revelation as much for me as it was for her. We worked slowly analyzing it together. The main thing was she was afraid to say what she thought. My goal was to get her to hear her own voice in relationship to the poem. At the end of our session -- her voice was stronger -- and we both understood something more ab out Audre's Lorde's work. And when the student walked out, I felt she wasn't hiding anymore. I fell in love with the process of helping her get to that quiet confidence -- and her Eureka moments. And I couldn't wait for the next student to walk in the door...