Beware the Ides of March!

     Beware the Ides of March! This is a phrase that has been ingrained in my mind since my sophomore year in high school. My English teacher was giving us a lesson on the age of Julius Caesar and she decided to make things a little interesting with a reward. Since my class only lasted the first semester, Mrs. Akerman told us she would give the student who remembered the Ides of March a gift on March 15th. I wrote down the date and its significance and when that date came I rushed to Mrs. Akerman to claim my glory. I believe the prize was only a fancy eraser or something of the sort, but the lesson, with its promise of a payoff, stuck with me for all the years that followed. I appreciate her creative approach to teaching in not just this instance, but many others.