My Hunting Valley colleague Terry Harmon has inspired boys to see in the native flora and fauna of this valley things they never imagined they would see or value so deeply. Mark Carle's students in physics have told me the same thing although the sources of their wonder and appreciation are immense or impossibly tiny realities. Mike Costello's students tell me the same thing, only in their case the stunning reality is what can be done by applying a technique to create a shape, a design, or a compelling illusion. You know I could go on. There are 110 full-time teachers in this room.
Inspiration is great, but there is no formula.
Nor are inspiring teachers magicians. They would be magicians if they created the natural world or the cosmos or the principles of design and perspective. Typically, when we inspire students, we are not the inspiration. But if we are having a good day, and if our own love and focus are in place, we may succeed in pulling the cover off what is inspiring. One of our graduates, Doug Smith, US Class of '79, got inspired about conserving the wild when he was here, but when he got a research job tracking wolves on an island in the Great Lakes, he took off.