The room is silent. It's like I can almost allow myself to start hoping again. She looks up at me with her wry smile. Tomorrow we'll read and think and talk and write some more about these ideas, Mandy. Ditch the text book.
Carpe diem and all that.
We'll leave the shabby classroom and go outside, find a place to sit in the wintery sun if there is any, and talk about the future. Maybe you'll think about the kids you may have one day, and what kind of world you want for them, and how you can help prepare that world so that it's ready for them when they're ready to arrive. We'll get some passion going. And then we'll write. We'll write as though what we have to say matters.