I have taught high school English for over 35 years in private as well as in public schools, and this profession still energizes me much as it did my first year. Teaching is an honorable vocation in the truest sense of the word--a calling, really, and there's nothing else I'd rather do. Above all else, I value kindness. I encourage my students to build from their strengths, and my own enthusiasm is contagious. My students come to understand and love literature (even poetry), and their wri...