Greetings SoarKidz friends! My name is Doug Knuth (pronounced kuh-nooth) and I cannot wait to learn with you! I have been teaching in various settings for over 13 years, including as Teacher Lori’s teaching assistant in my undergraduate program—running debates and helping students with public speaking. I also work alongside my wife who teaches third grade in relation to cirriculum development, literacy comprehension, and inquiry-based learning. My educational philosophy is that students are not just learning to be readers, debaters, or analysts, but that they are already scholars and giving them that distinction empowers their ideas. This is evident with SoarKidz and one of the reasons I joined—to provide our young leaders, scholars, and writers with the tools they can use to create a better future. I recommend that every person read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman--it is a bit macabre at times, but brushes readers up against Death with a soft kindness rarely glimpsed by the world.