So, there are these things called "course packs," which are all of the not-in-a-book reading required for each class. These are mine. (The Nalgene's there for scale.) Aren't they fetching?

Really, the reading I've done so far has been pretty fascinating. But it is weird to sit around and read for 4+ hours every day! Feels a bit selfish, lazy. Good thing I've had frisbee time, hiking and tons of walking.

I just got back from a public forum with 71-year-old, very funny and animated Jonathan Kozol, who is a Harvard alum, mentor to new teachers and author of the new book Letters to a Young Teacher. He suggested that teachers today need a sense of humor and a dose of "sly irreverence," and said of them, "Not only do I want them to stay, I want them to keep their souls." He feels strongly that No Child Left Behind is a bunch of baloney (that its true purpose was to "soften the ground" for vouchers!) and that the three most important facets of good education today are the quality of teacher, the high morale of the teacher and the number of kids in a classroom. (I just love it when really wise people put things succinctly like that. --Like when Ralph Nader said on NPR a year ago that the most important issues in our country are preserving family farms, campaign reform and something else that I can't remember right now.) Anyways. It was great, and I am inspired, and excited to be in a place where I got to choose between that, a med school talk about Global Warming and who knows what else all in the same night!