… I view the teaching experience as educative in the widest sense. As teachers we have the power (and the responsibility that accompanies that power) to reach into peoples’ souls and actually leave an imprint, sometimes changing our students for life. Much as I love the course content, I try never to lose sight of what I want to impart to students far beyond the particulars of what we study: the beauty of the world, the magic of life, the extraordinary joy and power of thinking critically, the richness of all knowledge, the moral responsibility of independent thought. It might sound silly, but the real lessons of what I teach are always these, regardless of the official “subject” of the course. We should always be teaching through the material as well as teaching the material itself. I am truly convinced that as a result absolutely any topic can be fascinating and enriching, because beyond any required reading/study, a teacher’s real goal should always be to open students to understanding their world and themselves, including their/our blind-spots and prejudices…