Pulling the curtain back

“It is not my job to judge, but merely to pull the curtain back to reveal this hidden world behind it.”
-Eudora Welty

I always thought this quote summed up my approach towards journalism so beautifully. I am not there to judge other lives, but to pull the curtain back on moments, struggles, and issues that might otherwise go unseen or unheard.

Today, it struck me that these words are also an apt philosophy for teaching. In the classroom, I am not there to judge my students, their lives, their upbringing or their beliefs, but to pull the curtain back on the world of knowledge, of literature, language and learning. A world that perhaps they have not glimpsed or known before. It’s my job to spark their desire to explore that world, just as I lead readers into untrod territory through words and cadence and detail.

In journalism, pulling the curtain back has allowed me to glimpse worlds containing such beauty and strength. The dignity and grace of the Lost Boys of Sudan. The quiet labors of immigrant parents envisioning better lives for their children. The resiliency of hurricane-ravaged small towns. The transformative power of inner-city gardeners.

Just imagine what wonders await my students. The universal truths of Shakespeare. The existential questions of Frankenstein. The soul-wrenching insights of Toni Morrison. The soul-lifting poetry of Shelley, Whitman, Blake and Neruda.