George Mason Day 1.

I loved my first day at George Mason yesterday. (This post is real time, I promise to return to the Fourth later.) The professors and program model are a PERFECT fit. We were given an hour for journaling about three people, moments and ideas that have influenced us in our journeys as teachers. I had so much to say that I didn't get to finish in the hour, and I still need to elaborate on the ideas. As I reread it tonight, I wanted to share what I wrote about one of the most influential people in my teaching life.


Best to start with mom. She says teaching skipped her generation, but that insatiable love for life long learning did not. As a kid, we learned every day. Summers were stuffed with camps, classes and museums. Kenneth recently told me he would like to raise his kids the B-Roe way. Others have suggested Mom write a book on parenting. I think that what she did was so natural that it would be a very short book. Her enthusiasm for exposing Lauren and I to the world around us was a by-product of her own upbringing by teachers. To my mom, it was normal to read everywhere, to travel with your parents, and for parents to embrace the role of their children’s biggest fans. It is why, years after her days as PTA president at our schools were done, Mom jumped into an official PTA mom at my own urban middle school. Seeing Mrs. Luhrs at sporting events, picnics and on field trips was as normal as seeing Miss Luhrs. Teaching really didn’t skip a generation, it merely took an unconventional role in my mother’s life.

(The picture above was taken at the seventh grade picnic at NWMS. We cooked over 100 hot dogs and brats for the students and teachers!)