“The capacity for friendship is God's way of apologizing for our families.”
― Jay McInerney, The Last of the Savages
― Jay McInerney, The Last of the Savages
Well, it’s been a pretty eventful week! I realized only today that I’d neglected to post last weekend and got a few emails wondering where I disappeared to. I’m still here, just staying busy.
I
have never particularly wanted children of my own, probably for the same reason
I don’t want a pet. I don’t plan ahead very well and acquiring either a child
or a pet would mean planning on at least one thing for the next fifteen to
eighteen years. I’d have to take something else into consideration when making
decisions. Come to think of it, that’s also a factor in my love life (or lack
thereof). I realized last week that, despite my not wanting kids, when I
inherited my classroom I also inadvertently inherited the lives of nine small children.
Their problems, their discipline, their mood swings, their quarrels, and, for
better or worse, their futures. I’m the starting gate for the rest of their
education and I worry every day about the way I handle them, what kind of world
I’ll send them into and with what tools. Because of this sense of extreme responsibility
I take my job as teacher very seriously and my students are advancing faster
than I can write lesson plans. Since October 10th they have been
doing math, science experiments, penmanship, and phonics each day and I keep
waiting for that wall when they say “enough is enough! We can’t cram anything
more into our heads!” but it hasn’t come yet.
That's Sara on the right |
My
little sister Sara came home on Wednesday night after being in Montana for the
past two years, which is pretty cool, and one of the first things I did was
bring her to my class. The kids were thrilled to have a new person to play with
especially my “sister princess” as they kept calling her.
With
Sara back in town the whole family is under one roof for the first time in
about seven years, maybe more. I pulled the futon mattress out of the Jetta (which
sits forlornly idle at the top of the driveway) and Sara is in her teenage bed
while we share the same small room strewn with clothes and heavy blankets. She’s
going to be around for about a month and come November 1st she’ll be
helping me move into my new apartment! I found a place ten minutes walk from
work for $450/month (with nothing included, oh well). The girl I’ll be living
with seems very nice, if a little quirky. When I viewed the place she was
making her costume for the renaissance fair and in the evenings she likes to
crochet. He place (My place!) smelled so strongly of sandalwood that when I got
off the bus an hour later Dad thought I’d been smoking pot. This apartment will
cut almost two hours a day off my commute time. Yeah!
Alright,
Sara wants to go apple picking and I have lesson plans to write. Keep on
Truckin’
I can tell you are becoming an excellent teacher from the way you describe the burden of responsibility you feel for your students. I'm saying this from one teacher to another. Enjoy the time with your sister.
ReplyDelete