Though graduate school directs us towards thinking of research and publication as the primary index of achievement in this profession, I have learned that teaching is my real work. When asked what I do, I say I am a teacher.

I don't think we should imagine teaching to be the transmission of knowledge, as if it were water or some other substance, from one mind to another. I don't know what metaphor is best to describe the ideal class, but there have been many moments in the classroom (and usually these are after discussions on literature) when I and the students all know that we have collectively created a new awareness, and the rewards of study are in us and with us in the room.