EDUCATION: Semester Break

Early this morning I was thinking of one more item I wanted to write and post here about how the semester break takes such a load off students and now we’re free for three or four weeks to read, write, explore, relax, travel, party, or just regress back to stupid. Then I realized that now that all our hard work is done and the pressure is off, it’s really not the same story for teachers. The last week of the semester is rough with cramming for exams, writing papers and all that for students, but the week AFTER the last week is one of the roughest for teachers. They have to grade papers and plod through essays and research papers, and with a deadline in which to do it. They can’t use excuses with the administration as they may have possibly done with their students. The pressure is on, and I started to feel sorry for them, but remembered that while students pay for an education, teachers get paid for their part in it. So I didn’t write the entry.

Then a neighbor and instructor at my college drove by as I was walking to my shop. She stopped the car, wished me a Merry Christmas, and said she was on her way to school to meet with some students. Guess she’s not going to have the same three or four weeks off that I as a student will have. So I decided to make time and write this entry after all.

Thanks, Sally, for your dedication and that of your colleagues and teachers the world over. Merry Christmas to you all.