Lucky for you I found this brochure!

What was Willie Nelson doing in my honors literature class this morning?

Singing "On the Road Again." Great way to kick off a discussion of Walt Whitman's "Song of the Open Road," don't you think?

A moment of instructional serendipity occurred partway through class while students were doing some group work on the benefits and burdens of travel: I stepped out of the room to get a drink (because after 10 days of coughing, my voice still needs frequent lubrication or it poops out)--now where were we?

So I step out into the hall to get a drink while my students are brainstorming benefits and burdens of travel and my eyes fall upon a study-abroad brochure boldly declaring, "It's All About You!" 

"You are not like everyone else who has gone abroad," asserts the brochure. "You have your own aspirations for this incredible experience. Lucky for you, you have chosen the study abroad program that understands that. Check out how we built our programs to serve your individual interests."

You you you you you, how lucky for you!
 
I took the brochure back to class and read that to the students. What would Whitman say? If travel is all about pursuing your own unique individual path, why would you need to join a group? If Whitman was simply celebrating his insatiable desire for perpetual motion unshackled by commitment or stasis, why does he conclude by inviting a traveling companion to "stick" with him as long as they live? 

I concluded today's class--I, the teacher, the representative of the school, the one who assigns the Required Reading--with Whitman's exhortation:

Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen'd!
Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn'd!
Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher! 

(But how can you mind not the cry of the teacher who tells you to mind not the cry of the teacher?)

Don't ask me. Ask Walt.