Last fall, the CavanKerry Press blog began an occasional series called "Poetry and Education," which has thus far featured four essays from people associated in some capacity with the Frost Place Conference on Poetry and Teaching. Guest faculty member Terry Blackhawk and I wrote the first two, but more recent offerings were contributed by Jean Kanzinger and Carlene Gadapee, both master English teachers and long-time supporters of the conference. They have written gorgeous, spoken-from-the-trenches pieces that also overflow with idealism and love, and I really think you should read what these teachers have to say. The essays have gotten a great deal of social-network attention, with good reason, and I am so honored to count these women as colleagues and friends.

P.S. Here's a bit from Margaret Drabble's novel The Middle Ground that jumped off the page and bit me this morning.

"I hate scholarship," said Kate, vehemently, wiping her fingers on her son's home-knit jersey, "I hate the way it tells you that everything you think means something else really, but I know I hate it so much because I know it's true. Sickening to be always wrong, isn't it?"