Dear Friend,
Maya Angelou says, “At our best, we’re all teachers.” True teachers share their lessons on many levels and this website is a vehicle to do just that. We already share so much: your success is my success; your pain is my pain; your air is my air; the children in your care are related to the children in my care. They are all our children, each and every one of them.
I learned the truth of our belonging as a high school teacher, something I loved with my whole heart and something from which, after twenty years, I walked away. The children I gave birth to are in high school and college and a girl can only take so many hormones and back-talk in a day. Truth be told, I love a sassy kid almost more than anything.
I now work at the Stanford University Graduate School of Education and the Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning. I work from home or in different schools every day. Empowering and giving Grace to our teachers is now the work of my days and, although I enjoy carrying a workbag that no longer holds 190 essays, I sure do miss our kids.
Because there is no such thing as other people’s children. Because we belong to one another.
I’m a classic introvert in many ways, far preferring to spend quiet time at home. This is no easy feat given I live in a state characterized by the Joyous Madness of family, friends, and pets. At night, when the house is finally quiet and I can think straight, I remember that, despite their crazy, my children are my greatest blessings and my greatest teachers.
This is my online home and, because of the good Italian girl I am, that means it’s your home too. For those of you who are not lucky enough to have been raised in an Italian-American home, the rule is we welcome you once and then you’re family.
Welcome. Now, you are in charge of getting what you want from the kitchen.
