Why I do this...
Feb. 9th, 2006 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyjadwigaThis morning I read a short article in a discarded Utne (which I had brought home from the library) about someone who answered his phone at 11:30 pm to hear a 12 year old ask him, "Why do you do what you do?" And how difficult it was for him to figure out what to say... suggesting that we should all figure out the answer for ourselves.
Today and yesterday I taught 3 groups of English 2 students a little about making their Internet searching better.
This afternoon I read "What Teachers Make". (Thanks, Liam)
And then, someone posted that Lifehacker has an article suggesting that people actually talk to librarians http://www.lifehacker.com/software/feature/get-the-most-of-your-local-library-online-153821.php .
I do what I do for a living because if all I teach people is "there are librarians and they can sometimes help" I've made their quality of life better. I love to teach people better ways of finding information; I love to teach people ways of sharing information. I get high on the look on the face of someone for whom I've found something they hoped beyond hope existed but couldn't find, on the face of someone who now knows how to do something for him/herself.
And the rest of it? I do it because information wants to be free. Because just because I have resources and time and energy to find things out doesn't mean those answers should be stuck inside my head or my notes. Because I've given up trying to find A teacher, and am looking for people to teach, teaching people to find out and teach. That's what I do; it's why I do what I do. It's because finding something out, finding out how pieces fit together, is an experience that Carl Sandburg and e.e. cummings together couldn't convey the hang-gliding-updraft, world-spread-out-before-you joy of, and not only do I want to keep feeling that way, I want to make other people feel that way.
Today and yesterday I taught 3 groups of English 2 students a little about making their Internet searching better.
This afternoon I read "What Teachers Make". (Thanks, Liam)
And then, someone posted that Lifehacker has an article suggesting that people actually talk to librarians http://www.lifehacker.com/software/feature/get-the-most-of-your-local-library-online-153821.php .
I do what I do for a living because if all I teach people is "there are librarians and they can sometimes help" I've made their quality of life better. I love to teach people better ways of finding information; I love to teach people ways of sharing information. I get high on the look on the face of someone for whom I've found something they hoped beyond hope existed but couldn't find, on the face of someone who now knows how to do something for him/herself.
And the rest of it? I do it because information wants to be free. Because just because I have resources and time and energy to find things out doesn't mean those answers should be stuck inside my head or my notes. Because I've given up trying to find A teacher, and am looking for people to teach, teaching people to find out and teach. That's what I do; it's why I do what I do. It's because finding something out, finding out how pieces fit together, is an experience that Carl Sandburg and e.e. cummings together couldn't convey the hang-gliding-updraft, world-spread-out-before-you joy of, and not only do I want to keep feeling that way, I want to make other people feel that way.
