Beantown Madness

Another two incredible weeks of speech and debate camp have come to a close for me in this wild and crazy summer of mine. The more I engage in this activity the more compelled I am to believe that it could be something I want to do for a living, or more significantly I realize how much I enjoy teaching. During this last camp, a much smaller one than the previous one I worked, I was broadsided by the depth of the impact that I can have on some of my students lives as a speech and debate coach. To some degree it frightens me how some people that have sat in my lectures or listened to my tutelage idolize me or say in their hearts I want to be like him. I write that not to be arrogant, because it is not unique to me, it occurs for almost every instructor. While it is a little daunting, it also represents the opportunity for incalculable impacts not only in the lives of a small group of children at camp, but a gargantuan influence in the spheres of influence that those kids run in. Most kids at speech and debate camp are smart and when they go home many are the leader of their pack, but even if they are not, if they have the ability to clearly articulate ideas and concepts, others will listen. That means stuff I say or teach them has the potential to be repeated in some form or fashion in a high school classroom or on a speech and debate trip and the influence of the ideas spreads a little farther. I guess for some this grassfire effect seems like a grand and noble impact, but one that is unrealistic. I realized a few summers ago, how real it is. When a friend of mine went to Italy, and while waltzing down the streets of Venice he and a friend ran into a few other American girls...those girls, students of mine at speech and debate camp in 2003, and I had made enough of an impact on their lives that they spent a dinner conversation talking about what I had taught them and how much they learned from me in those two short weeks. That all occurred in the summer of 2005, two full years after that camp occurred.
For me that means that living out of a suit case and racking up frequent flyer miles as I criss-cross the country working at camps is not merely a job or a money making adventure. It's a genuine opportunity to dynamically affect the lives of America's thinking high school youth. How far that influence goes, I leave wholly and confidently in the hands of Divine Providence. I only hope that history and the hand of Divinity judge that influence as a steady and consistent compass guiding young people down the path as they search for truth. I do not profess to fully understand the consequences of my influence, but I am thankful for the opportunity however big or small it may actually be. It's been work, it's been tiring, it's been frustrating and angering at times, but in the end whether its my time in the Beantown Madness of speech and debate camp in Boston, or educating 'neath the LA lights I just want to say thanks for all you who have made it possible. I've had the time of my life...