It's 12 degrees in middle Tennessee on the first day of the Spring semester. No matter. Spring means renewal and a fresh start, just like Opening Day in my favorite sporting pastime. Pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in just a few weeks now.
I think these "first contact" days in academia, meeting bright-eyed eager young learners for the first time (they get younger every year, somehow), hearing who they think they are and why they're here and what they think philosophy is (et al) are what I'll miss most when I stop teaching. Is this really going to be the penultimate year? We'll see. Meanwhile, I fully intend to enjoy today.
I see that several more student introductions have surfaced on our course site since last night, before we've entered the classroom for the first time (starting at 9:40 this morning). Pleased to see that so many of the kids have responded to my challenge, when I said in my own intro that I worry about their generation not reading books. They're mentioning titles that are unfamiliar to me, mostly, and that's good. I do learn from them at least as much as they learn from me, when I remember to pay attention and make connection. George Saunders is right: "[W]riting and reading [and teaching and learning] is a way of simply underscoring that human connection is important, that you can know my mind and I can know yours, which is a vastly consoling idea, and we need it."
So here we go. Another fresh start. Tabula rasa time. My mentor John Lachs didnt quit 'til he was 87. I begin to understand why.
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