Today was the first day of classes after winter break, and as I was going to and from a meeting on campus, I had the following interchange from my beloved Buffy run through my head:
Snyder: I mean, it's incredible. One day the campus is completely bare. Empty. The next, there are children everywhere. Like locusts. Crawling around, mindlessly bent on feeding and mating. Destroying everything in sight in their relentless, pointless desire to exist.
Giles: I do enjoy these pep talks. Have you ever considered, given your abhorrence of children, school principal was not, perhaps, your true vocation?
Yes, I was in the locust camp with Snyder today. Don't get me wrong, when they're in my classes I usually get absurdly, sentimentally attached to them, and I do really love teaching and working with them individually. And yet sometimes, especially after campus has been serenely empty for a while, the sight of students en masse is just overwhelming. Like a swarm of hungry rats is overwhelming. Introvert moment over. I have the impression many of the faculty fall into the same camp.
Also, the new Kleenex commercial makes me cry. And I love the fact that I can get free books from publishers because I might be assigning them in the class I'm teaching this summer. Especially because legal history books are often $40 a pop or more! Ah, the sweet, sweet perks of academia. Sure, we get paid in sawdust and old coffee grounds, but, free books! OK, I think I've dorked out enough for today. Back to reading those lovely, lovely books. Mmmmm, typeface on paper.
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2 comments:
Campuses are so much more peaceful during the breaks...they're like little utopian gardens full of books.
Then the students show up.
i miss the free books. and six month library borrowing times. :)
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