THE Great Northwest Books The Deer Teacher

Children have no money and offer little else in terms of easily understood adult values. Yet teachers seem not only willing to be in the company of children or younger people, but they also seem to seek them out. Teachers invite the young to talk. They aren't just schoolteachers either; they seem to be a type of person. (Watch someone who doesn't like to talk with children, and you may easily recognize someone who does.) Education, or talk between people, goes on outside as well as inside school. But the kind of talk between people that comprises my life's profession is the intentional talk between teachers, students, and taxpayers in the school, college, university, or whatever word describes such an educational environment. We usually want to be with each other and talk in some way, be it
over the phone, in person, in writing, in dance, in art or sculpture, in music, in
television -- it doesn't matter how. Occasionally, however, we may not
want to talk with each other for some reason. That is when a teacher's work begins.