Recently, a close colleague stated, “When I am done here,” motioning with her hand to the layout of her classroom, “I am done.” This comment was sparked from our discussion concerning my direction in the field of education now that I had completed my doctorate. My love for the students has not waned after close to three decades in the classroom. However, my doctoral journey awoke something within me that reaches beyond the walls of my classroom. It reignited a calling.

    

Many wonderful and influential teachers may consider their work complete after this long in the classroom. It is an arduous journey. However, I am not one of those educators. In a period of such transformation within the field of education, where 21st-century students bring their 21st technologies into society and the classroom, blurring the lines concerning the landscape of teaching and learning, now is the time to nurture the change through cultivating the next generations of educators. This edublog is just one means by which I hope to do that through ruminations and rabbit trails.

rumination a deep or considered thought about something. the action of chewing the cud.

rabbit trail veering off subject or off the point of the conversation making statements with no real purpose just for the sake of stating it.

The image that came to me in these words was that of the country doctor, so often found in early America, traveling house to house to personally aid each family in need. Sometimes he would take the main road – while at others, some beaten path – whatever the need called for. As a rural, education doctor, I hope to bring the same mindset to this 21st century outlet in hopes of nurturing the next generations of educators.

I leave you with this. Although I will share focused ruminations on all aspects of education, I will take those rabbit trails occasionally. Rabbit trails in discussions can be interesting but lead nowhere. However, these rabbit trails will be to explore a side path – more like taking the road less traveled by as described by my favorite poet, Robert Frost, in “The Road Not Taken.”

So, come with this ol’ country doctor as we head down the road less taken, venturing down side rabbit trails from time to time, as we explore our American schools!