Post Thanksgiving

Here we go. The time between Thanksgiving and whatever we call the break coming up (Christmas, Winter Break) is one that tests our dedication.

Yes, we care about our students’ progress, probably more than we did in August or September. But we’re tired of repeated excuses, we have presents to buy and fruitcake to bake. The days are shorter, the nights longer. Our students are not the only ones feeling that there’s too little time and not enough patience. When someone’s grandma dies for the fifth time this semester, we want to call him on it, and then go off to the kitchen to eat cookie dough – or take our own children sledding.

We’re going to feel like this again in May, when the sunshine and early summer winds call us as we sit grading papers and trying to figure out how to keep our students involved in the classroom. We’re going to caution them against the senior swan dive, against giving up or slacking off just weeks from the end.

We’re going to give some of them the break of their lives, or remind ourselves that for some of them, the best thing we can do is stay true to our principles on late papers and lack of attendance.

And we will survive to teach again – in two weeks, in two months. We’re in one of the fortunate professions, where next year, next semester we have the opportunity to begin fresh. Fresh books, fresh attitudes, fresh students. All we need to do is stay true to our field of study, our beliefs, our students. Ourselves.