Thanks

Some 40+ years ago a salesman showed up on the doorstep, selling encyclopedias. Mom and Dad scraped together the money and purchased a set for us.

I am sun sensitive. That means I can't go out and spend large amounts of time in the sun because I get physically ill. It's not pretty. Trust me. And I grew up in an area of the country where the sun is brutal. We had 2 seasons- hot and hotter. (ok I exaggerate, it would rain in August and we did wear a jacket to school and carried it home in the winter) But trust me, I didn't spend a lot of time outdoors in the summer.

No, instead I set in front of the book case and read. The dictionary. and the encyclopedia volumes.

And sometimes I would move to the bookcase at the end of the hall and read a couple of volumes of Agatha Christie or Mark Twain or whatever else my hand touched that day.

But there have been times that I have loved that encyclopedic education. Today was one such day.

The Gov/Cit, history teacher had a family emergency and had to go get his son in SLC. He needed a sub. Fast. For his resource history class. The one that doesn't like to read or do work or anything that isn't handed to them. They were supposed to read a packet on the history of Thanksgiving and then write a summary on it.

Guess who wasn't doing it when I got to the classroom?

Thanks to the love of learning that my parents gave me when they purchased that set of encyclopedias, I was able to skim the article and have a meaningful discussion with the students, ask questions that led them to the article to find the answers and they read and they answered and thought and we all had an enjoyable class.

And even though I can find all kinds of information on the internet, I still love going downstairs and pulling out a volume and just reading.

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Indeed.