To Irrigate Deserts

This blog's title originated in a passage from C.S. Lewis's Abolition of Man. In it, Lewis wrote about the task of teachers as cultivators of their students, guides who aid young people in the discovery of truth:

The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defence against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes. For famished nature will be avenged and a hard heart is no infallible protection against a soft head.

I have always liked this description of the work of teachers; In light of my move to Phoenix--to teach--the double-meaning of the phrase "to irrigate deserts" was too good to pass up.

Please enjoy my blog.