An inservice training session triggered a crisis of confidence for the author, a veteran teacher, but it also inspired the author to rethink their approach to teaching reading and writing. While the author attended a conference, the state presenter explained that the new curriculum represents "shifts" in philosophy about teaching language arts. The first shift was a new emphasis on nonfiction, which would now make up 60 percent of what students read. Also, there would be a shift to more rigorous fiction; the literature our students currently read was too easy. The more the author got into close readings of the nonfiction texts in the new curriculum, the more they began to appreciate the genre, the engaging topics and rhetorical strategies employed by speechwriters and essayists, deciding that powerful nonfiction writing can have just as much impact on making us better humans as fiction can.