Don't Tour Guides Get Paid A Lot More?

Okay, first I think Cheyney's story about the library sure tops mine! I only wish I could have experienced such an amazing weekend!

Second, I think that there can be some pretty naive LDS people here who don't realize that not everything will work out happily ever after even if you think it will because you followed all the rules. But in fairness to people in Utah I lived in some communities where LDS people thought that as well and they weren't surrounded by Mormons everywhere. I think people want to believe in something and they become so entrenched that they can't see something else might be okay or something else might be good.

And that leads me to agree with everyone that we have to be tour guides in some way. We don't want to force someone to believe in what we do, and I certainly don't want my students to feel like they have to write something I will agree with for them to get an A. But if we never push them or make them think in a different way how are they going to realize that a single, depressed mother is something that happens with marriage? It's out there and if you never think about it does that make it any less real?

I don't know how to be a tour guide, but I do like Cheyney's idea that you can argue for topics and against topics in an effort to get your students to see both sides. If you make them argue against you there might be an "ah ha" moment when they actually think outside their own demographic. Who knows what you will unleash then?

Even if my teachers were pushing their own agenda I'm glad they made me see another side, and I hope I can do that for some of my students even if it means I'm not helping them find "their one true word" or that I'm being too authoritarian.