I teach English not Science! (exploring fields other than teaching)

Our challenge is to push ourselves to look elsewhere--especially to those areas we love--for connections with what we teach.

We teachers know what we like--and like what we know. In the lounge, the English teacher hunkers down in his comer with coffee and the latest novel. In the cafeteria, the science teacher traces the path of bodies falling through the air of her imagination while she eats her salami sandwich.

We limit ourselves. If you think of those who have made especially important or interesting contributions to their field of study, you will notice a common thread: they draw from the whole world in order to better understand that part of the world they …