Next Quarter

My last classes meet on Thursday. Every once in a while I catch myself thinking, Oh next quarter I'll... or I should hang on to this! I can share it with... And the feeling is bittersweet when I realize that, no, next quarter I won't be teaching.

There is so much that I'll miss about it and probably foremost is, strangely, the accountability: I have to be prepared, I have to know my material, and I have to assess students fairly. I get to tell stories and listen to theirs. For twelve hours each week, I have a captive audience. This has been both exhilarating and daunting.

I'll return to teaching someday, whether as an adjunct in a community college or university or as a leader for an informal writing group of five-year-olds or fifty-year-olds.

Impulsive but not Unplanned

I told the dean yesterday that I didn't plan to come back next quarter.

On the one hand, this was impulsive. I hadn't known I was going to do that when I got to campus. In my various discussions and ruminations, this had merely been an option (the smarter and financially practical choice would have been to leave the library, instead).

On the other hand, I had made this decision many times; I had told the dean the same thing before the start of the last quarter, and she convinced me to stay.

I am better for having had this experience, and I do hope the students are better for having had me as an instructor. But I know without doubt that my talents and passion lie elsewhere. I'll have the time, when the quarter concludes in July, to pursue those.

Dilettantes and dabblers

Pamela Sims wonders in today's New York Times, "Is this the Time to Chase a Career Dream?" She describes a little of her own career as a business coach, helping clients discover and realize their dreams: Surgeons who want to be musicians, program managers who want to build churches. Sims suggests that the chaos and instability of today's job market may lead to more people following their dreams, indulging their creative passions.

She writes that "if [people] are going to live with uncertainty, and work like crazy to secure their livelihood, ... they might as well pursue something they care about deeply."  Last month I wrote about another New York Times article, Generation OMG. The article described a business major going into teaching because "the economic contraction... can give people more room to be creative." 

I don't know that I'd say going into teaching is "being creative" (not that it doesn't require oodles of creativity!)  I'd more likely say that teaching--like nursing--is a recession-proof career. There may be reductions in benefits and even positions, but on the whole, there will always be a need for education and health care. 

Will there be a need for dilettantes and dabblers?  I can do both of those jobs quite well.