The photographs on this page were taken in the beautiful
Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
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Pointing the Way
My 11th grade English Lit teacher was a man by the name of Mr. Worrell.  For those who
actually liked English Literature, he was a treasure.  For those who weren't so happy about
memorizing dozens of lengthy poems, "treasure" wasn't the word most commonly used about
him.  Every month, he'd hand out the list of poems to be memorized and, while most of my
classmates groaned and complained, I eagerly scanned the titles to see which ones I
already knew.  As a friend pointed out at the time, "It's fine for you, you already know
half the poems ever written, you spend most of your time reading..." (here she assumed
a look of complete and utter bewilderment) "...for fun."
I don't think, even after all these years, I've managed to memorize half of the world's poetry,
but she was right about me spending an inordinate amount of time with my head stuck in a
book.  (Then and now, too.)  So, to me, Mr. Worrell - who taught with a passion only
someone born to be a teacher could - was an absolute joy.  The other day (head stuck in
a book, as usual), I ran across a poem by Matthew Arnold.  The lines took me back
to 11th grade English Lit and to Mr. Worrell:
"An eager teacher seized my youth, pruned my faith and trimmed my fire;
Showed me the high, bright star of truth, there bade me gaze...and there aspire."

This page is dedicated to the teachers, the ones who face each day with optimism,
passion and determination.  The ones who point the way to the stars.
The ones who care.  -- Nancy
A teacher who can arouse a feeling for one single poem accomplishes
more than he who fills our memory with rows of objects, classified with
name and form.  -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Anyone can tell students what is expected of them.  A teacher, though -
a true teacher - awakens a student's own expectations.  -- Patricia Neal
Education is more effective when its purpose is to ensure that, by the
time they leave school, students know how much they do not know and
are imbued with a lifelong desire to know it.  -- William Haley
Teaching is the profession that teaches all
the other professions.  -- Author Unknown
We look back with appropriate appreciation to the brilliant teacher, but with
warm gratitude to the teacher who touched our human feelings.  -- Carl Jung
The task of the excellent teacher is to stimulate ordinary
people to unusual effort.  -- Patricia Cross
A teacher can never tell where his or her influence will end.  -- Henry Adams
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting
of a fire.  -- William Butler Yeats
Teachers use themselves as bridges, over which they invite their students to
cross; then, having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, after they have
encouraged their students to create bridges of their own.  -- Nikos Kazantzakis