Dumb

When school ends, people often ask how I’m doing, and I say, “Well, I’m not feeling like myself quite yet.” I mean, I need a little more time away from the intensity and responsibility of teaching. It’s been four days since school ended. Just today I sweated through the classroom cleanup and whisked my plants […]

Last

What protects you, at the end of the school year, is that you are so tired. My first few years, I was frustrated by how dead and hollow I felt. I wanted to feel sad to lose that group of kids, but they were like ghosts to me in the last weeks of school. Or […]

Alarms

This year, at the senior banquet, I got the first shout-out. I don’t like being the center of attention, so I was both pleased and embarrassed. What does the graduating senior say of me, after two years in my class? “I remember Ms Schurman always used to say, ‘Wake up!” The purpose of education is, […]

Lit

On Sunday, I lit a candle in each room of my house: bedroom (dresser), bathroom (shelf), and living room (windowsill). Usually I light one at a time. As I lit them, I thought, I am going to forget one. I will burn my house down! My mother always used to warn me about this. I […]