writing articles

I just finished writing an article for JACT about teaching Latin. Ok, I borrowed in great measure from an article I wrote last summer that never got published (though may be getting published?), but much of it I wrote over the last few days.

And I'm thinking, AM I A NUTJOB? WHY O WHY do I find the need to write articles? If I were a professor it would be a natural part of the job, something I'd definitely need to do and do well if I were ambitious and wanted to move up the career ladder to full tenureship.

But this does nothing, really, for my career. Neither does this blog, though I enjoy writing in it. Sometimes I have to ask myself if I'm not pretty egotistical thinking that my ideas need to be spread far and wide....

but then...

then I think that what I do--if nothing else--is get people thinking, hopefully in new directions that can lead to better teaching. I don't need people to agree with me. I don't even mind if people challenge me. What I can't stand, though, is to see people sitting still and doing nothing. They learned Latin one way, they teach it that way, they never go to conferences or write articles or attend workshops. They do nothing.

I am no great Latinist. I'm going to a workshop to read Cicero and apparently Catullus as well next week. I'm going to be speaking Latin. I'm scared I will be totally out of my element and that I will be struggling with forms I haven't had to teach in a long time. I don't want to be known for being a great Latinist. I would rather be known for getting others to be the great Latinist I'm not.

So, I guess when I worry about why I write articles and present papers, I know it's not for the attention and the ego stroking, it's just to further the cause. And that's ok.

(Right. I suppose this entry was more for my own personal diary, but I'm tossing it out here anyway....)