From Education Week’s article entitled, Does Merit Pay Work?:

Despite pay-for-performance programs’ resurging popularity, some skeptics question whether money can ever be a major motivator for teachers, many of whom see the profession as more of a calling than a job. [emphasis added by moi]

All by myyyyseeeellllllfff …

I took precalculus as a sophomore, which was was unusual in my unified school district but not very. Halfway through the year — over winter break to be exact — I borrowed a calculus textbook and taught myself the first semester. After break I joined up with a class of seniors and set their first semester final exam curve.

Until that point I had enjoyed math in much the same way I enjoyed hearing those chimes upon completing a level of Super Mario Bros. Precalculus was satisfying but calculus was engrossing. That textbook fed me like only my favorite novels have. I’m realizing today — now — how insidiously and completely calculus has infiltrated my teaching.

If you have never found joy in an indefinite integral, you’re pre-emptively forgiven for scratching your head over this post. I hope you’ll extend me the same courtesy when I say: you’re missing out.

(more…)