Tuesday, October 3rd

Today, Kurt and Masha toured Alcatraz and San Francisco; my Dad tooled around the East Bay detailing my car and hanging out in auto parts stores, and my Mom and I went to the SF Conservatory of Flowers, the DeYoung Museum and to my UC Exetension class: Linguistics for ESL Teachers at night. It was fortuitous that it was the second Tuesday of the month because everything in the city was free. There was a butterfly exhibit at the conservatory, and I had memories of hatching butterflies in grade-school when I walked through the display. If you click on the picture, you can see a larger image - you can actually see its probiscus!

The DeYoung Museum had a great Chicano exhibition and I learned that I really liked the artwork of Patssi Valdez.

It was great having my Mom in class with me; she was enthralled by my professor, who's really wonderful, and by the class, too.

Thankfully, it's a very dynamic and intelligent group of people in the class and I feel like I am learning so much every time I go. One thing that my professor said that night really stuck with me; he said "[The purpose of teaching is to draw your students out; it's to turn them into self-generating creators of knowledge]." When I think about all my really great teachers, I think not of the ones who spoon-fed me facts and figures and dates and names, but the ones who taught me, subconsciously, to think for myself. I hope that I can someday be that teacher to others!