My own children astound me as I work with them on their assignments. I see their giftings come forward. Daughter wants her timeline to be a spreadsheet rather than a line across a two page spread, because orderliness matters to her, the artist.  Son is learning how to work with stock trading and has shrunk his losses to 60 fake dollars on the stock market game. (Apparently the market swooped after the students spent their money). Another son has pretty much finished his work for the week except for a paper on Copernicus, and I realize he wants to write a long, in-depth paper so why should I force him to keep it short??

Our deep interest falls along the lines of our gifts. I love the teenage years. This period of time between childhood and full adulthood affords young people the time (and they have the energy!) to dig deep into a few areas of interest. And out of this interest often comes that focus for college work.

In my case, I listened to symphonic music on my portable record player and got the know a Beethoven symphony so well I could mentally drop the needle anywhere and continue the piece in my inner ear. I taught myself to play guitar, finger picking.  This led to my BS degree in Music Education and when I taught K-6 music I lugged my beloved guitar to school every day.

I wear my other hat with just as much affection, because my time as a tutor of ten fine students is the high point of the week. We have good times. I love being the argument teacher.  We get into argument in every class–isn’t it wonderful???

And better than that, this pesky hot and humid weather will soon be history as Vermont puts on her finest and invites us to the show. I am looking forward to those crisp nights in early October when I can cook dinner in the fire pit and linger outside afterward with cider, watching the sparks fly upward into the spangled velvet sky.

I have been persuaded to leave the ledge.