I had the most amazing summer! My current school offers teachers the opportunity to apply for grants to further their professional and educational goals. As a major goal is to cultivate a culture of readers, I applied for a grant to visit a number of UNESCO Cities of Literature... and I got it! I was gifted the opportunity to travel to Dublin, Barcelona, Prague, and Edinburgh to understand why these European cities are recognized for their literary culture. By exploring ancient libraries, writer's hangouts and museums, and scenes of brutality and sadness, I came to understand the absolute necessity of literature to tell the story of the people. Literature gets banned for a reason; it makes people think and connects people even as there are others who fight those important human necessities. I am leaving Europe with a newfound sense of the pure privilege of literacy.
