Why do I write? Why do I want to teach ESOL? Will I ever stop going to school?

Why Do I Write?   I have two answers to that question ...maybe three.  First and foremost I have stories to tell.  Take the picture to the right here.  It was taken in 2005 in Beijing at a silk factory.  We had just been through a tour and watched silk worm cocoons unwound by a simple strand generated by the worm.  The guide told us that it takes the silk of 2-3,000 silk worms to make a silk shirt.  The silk producing gland composes about 25% of the caterpillars body weight, and it takes 3 days to make the cocoon.  It takes less than 15 minutes to undo their handiwork.  What does that have to do with this picture.
      If you know me well, you know my callsign during my last Navy tour was Panda (after being Budha in Guam and Gunny in Spain, Panda was a nice change).  You will also recall I collect stuffed pandas.  So I walk into the gift shop for this silk factory and they are selling fresh water pearls.  The young lady is holding two pandas woven from fresh water pearls.  Did I buy them?  NO!  I was afraid my wife would think the price too exorbitant.  How much you ask?  $35 for both.   I write because I have so many stories to tell.  Am I afraid that people won't read what I write?  It is nice to share your story with someone (when they read it), but I have no choice but to write what is on my mind and in my heart.  I would burst if I didn't.  Someone just asked if I could have haggled over the price.  The sales clerks in government owned stores in China are not allowed to haggle.

 Why do I want to teach ESOL?  I wish the answer were simple, but it is not.  Just like writing, I feel compelled to teach ESOL.  If I don't get a position as an ESOL teacher I will be teaching with the Literacy Volunteers of Troup County or whomever needs me.  God has placed a burden on my heart to teach people to speak English.   I have a ministry as a middle school teacher, and I will have a ministry as an ESOL teacher.  I think the non-English speakers in our school system are under-served and under-appreciated.  They have a richness of culture to bring to our lives and our classrooms.  Also, those ESOL students deserve the same opportunity to succeed as every other student.   If my efforts help only one student succeed it is worth it.  And I feel in my heart that God has lead me into this field of study and work for a reason.  There is an opportunity ahead for me to join Him where He is working (highly suggest reading or completing the study called Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby), and this is my preparation. Opportunity favors the prepared!(Loose translation of the famous quote from Louis Pasteur)

 Will I ever stop gong to school?    My mother asked me that question often while she was alive.  She would always follow up with, "you have been going to school your whole life."  Having a tendency to be sarcastic, I would respond, "but I haven't live my whole life mother!"  Said with a smile she knew we were sharing the knowledge that we have had that conversation many times.  I always start my public school classes (and Sunday School when I have had the opportunity) by asking, "Does anybody have any questions?"   My students know that any question is fair game, and that if I don't know the answer I will find the answer.  Some people have told me I remind me of a cat, always curious.  The answer to the question is fairly simple.
         No, I will never stop going to school.  Although silence is not a void begging to be filled, ignorance is a void begging to be filled.  I choose to fill the void, while others decide to remain blissfully ignorant.  While explorers always ask what is over the next hill, I ask myself what something is, why it works that way, or what is the proper name for it.
     One last photo and story.  Why is there a panda sitting on a bunch of boomerangs?    Since I started my travels with People to People in 2005 with a trip to China, I have had a panda stuck in one of the outside pockets of my backpack.  In 2006 we were on a cattle station in western Australia when I was informed that my mother had died after finishing a bowl of ice cream.  I was devastated, as were my students.  I flew home 4 days earlier than the group from Cairns, Australia (pronounced Cans).  My students asked that I leave my panda behind so they would feel like I was still with them.  Sue Larkin brought that panda home to me and the students sent pictures of everything they did after I left with the panda.  I still had him in my backpack until July of last year.  I left him sitting on the top of the cabinets near the ceiling in the kitchen at New Day Orphanage.  Not sure if he is still there, or if anybody has noticed him there.  I have replaced him with another. But this photo was taken when the students were learning to throw boomerangs.
He had his own seat on the bus!!!  Cool!!!!

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