When I was younger my mother used to ground me from reading books. Like any other child, when my older sister got into trouble, she was grounded from visiting her friends' houses or watching TV. But when I didn't clean my room or stayed out too long with my friends, I was grounded from reading books. I used to have to sneak my library books home from school in my sister's backpack (since my mom would never think to look for books there). It was a whole operation. Each week, I would go to the library and use my advanced library card that allowed me to check out more than 10 books at a time to select my books for the next week. At the end, I would stash half of the books in my locker at school and beg my sister to transport the rest home in her backpack. In exchange, I did half of her chores for the week. This lasted for as long as my "grounding" lasted. And it was during these periods of book smuggling that my love for learning really blossomed. My mom had her reasons for her unique punishment style: part to to discipline me, of course, but also to reinforce my love of reading. This seems counter-intuitive, I know, but by recognizing books and my love of reading as something valuable, as something worthy of being grounded from, my mom was instilling in us and the value of knowledge.

As a junior in college, I no longer have to smuggle books home in my sister's backpack, but what I learned from the days of having to do so will never leave me. Knowledge is worthy of pursuing and we should do whatever is in our power to further our learning and help those around us do the same. I love sharing this story with my students because I believe every student has a passion like this. Maybe it's not reading for them; it could be drawing or sports or fashion. Whatever it is, there is some area of every student's life where they yearn for any extra kernel of knowledge. My goal as an educator is to learn that passion, motivate students to pursue it, and help them to do so by emphasizing the value of knowledge and learning.