I remember reading it all the way home after finishing up another semester of college. Vivid words, sharp connotations, and a diction I wish was my own. I sat on the couch and continued reading, and when my mother wanted to fix up the chairs, I sat on the floor with it still in my hands – I didn’t want to let it go. I had heard many things of Toni Morrison’s writing, her book Beloved was exceptionally written and I was glued to every page. But I am not writing this to praise Beloved or Toni’s unique style, or provide my own annotations as to what happened to Beloved, but rather, I am amazed at the Toni Morrisons working in Content at OpenCurriculum, creating that same pull for others in concepts.
You don’t see climactic events happening in the Pythagorean Theorem or in analyzing primary resources, but what you do see is hard work and understanding. Writing is hard, and writing an article explaining a concept is even harder. Intelligent individuals such Josh Siktar and Andy Minton (go Content team!) work diligently in formulating the right words to make sense of theories and events. Simply being part of long email chains with ideas blossoming, you gain an appreciation for all books and written resources. You realize that you learned so much in high school than you originally thought (and believe me, it is A LOT!). This also makes you feel bad about all the textbooks you never read entirely (which, in my case, are also a lot!). The way education culminates and builds upon itself is hard to show, and even harder to get people to see and pulled in, but we try anyway. And we try hard.
One of the craziest things that I’ve discovered working in Content is that just as we devote our time and energy into creating that “AHA! I get this!” moment for a student, so many teachers have done the same in the OER space, juggling their class curriculum and their own article inventions. There are tons of Toni Morrisons out there with spectacular content but they are so hard to find. Coming into Content, I didn’t think there would be a problem finding materials because everything can be found with Google, right? Well, not quite. So many things are buried within so many different sites and layers within a site, and really, who goes beyond the first few pages of the search results anyway? After a few pages and a few hours of research, I end up wishing everything was at one place…and then I realize that is exactly what OpenCurriculum is doing.
Knowing that we are working on making content easier to find and enjoy for all students and teachers makes this job all the more rewarding. Now everyone can get pulled to the stories of the many Toni Morrisons at OpenCurriculum! And hey, the more the merrier! I love Toni Morrison(s).