In Pilgrim on Tinker Creek (1998), Annie Dillard writes that the way we spend
our days is ultimately the way wee spend our lives. It's both a thrilling and a
chilling thought. As a teacher, am I using each day to teach my students in the
most challenging, interesting, exciting, and worthwhile ways? If not, they why not,
and how might I overcome the obstacles to doing so? Because if I do not face this
challenge with attentiveness and courage, then I teach years of days and,
multitudes of students in ways that are not all they could be. I fail to actualize the
potential of my teaching and of my students - an[sic] inevitably of life itself. (Qtd. in
Jeffrey Wilhelm's "You Gotta BE the Book": Teaching Engaged and Reflective Reading with Adolescents,
xvii).