I was so impressed that we were able to take up the challenge of understanding and teaching about revolution so quickly today.  My students certainly don't dig in nearly as quickly!  I struggle especially with teaching topics related to the history of the Middle East, often because I sometimes feel as though I am prying open the students' minds and their hearts.  I want them open immediately!  When I think about the topic of Arab Spring(s) and whether or not I think it is a set of revolutions (finished, unfinished), I realize that this is some of the most important material that I have ever taught.  I certainly don't know if I can enable the students move from absorbing the information to acting on it; there seems to be a wide distance between those two verbs.  I am confident, however, that this week will give me the so-welcomed opportunity to move my thinking further along with respect to approaches.  I am also struck by the fact that this material requires students to confront their values, backgrounds, faith traditions, and other very personal features of their lives as young people.  What students each individually bring to the study of peace, conflict, revolution, as well as the regions where these episodes all occur, all combine to help shape how they take in this information.