Teaching Now, Teaching Then

My department chair is coming to my 9 a.m. class this morning to observe me.  In some ways, it's a routine observation.  But I am always a bit anxious before an observation; I want it to go well, and even when I know that the chair is supportive, I want to perform well.

Happily, it's a class that's still mostly positive, and it's a 50 minute class, so it should be fine.  

I didn't realize that the observation would be on September 11 when I first requested this day as my first choice to be observed.  I'm not superstitious, and I usually don't mention these kinds of historical events when I'm teaching.  It's very strange for me that most (all?) of my students weren't born on September 11, 2001.

This year, when I've reflected back as this day approaches, I remember walking to my car at the University of Miami, after classes had been cancelled and the U of Miami president, Donna Shalala, had presided over a university meeting.  I walked across campus to the distant parking lot, and I saw two of my students.  One of them saw me and said through her tears,  "We're going to have a war, aren't we?"

I tried to comfort her, assuring her that we'd probably do some air attacks and then we'd move along until the next crisis.  Now I look back and think about how naive I was as we stood on the cusp of the longest war, so far, in U.S. history.

At the time I marveled at the fact that I was now the adult consoling the student, where not so long ago, I'd have been the student worrying about the world going up in flames.  One of the strange parts of undergraduate teaching is realizing how much I have aged, as one does, even though the students I'm teaching remain the same age, wave after wave of late adolescents coming through my first and second year college English classrooms.

The students in my 9:00 class are still excited about being in college, still intrigued by the idea of learning to be better writers.  I realize what a gift their attitude is.  I realize how lucky I am to be able to continue in this profession, even as history unfolds and shatters so many lives and careers.