Sunday, January 19, 2014

All My Children

This post is not about the soap opera that I remember being on air when I was growing up (pre-college). I never watched the show, and with all due respect to its fans, I have no idea what it was about.

What I do mean by this phrase is that despite our best attempts to remain 100% professional in both emotion and action, professors can't help but thinking of students, undergraduates especially, as "kids." Our kids -- children -- that's right, we're in a perpetual state of loco parentis.

I felt the excitement and anxiety of reuniting with students this past week when I resumed teaching. I was not quite playing my A-game after a semester of working on research and getting used to parenting, but I managed. I saw a lot of former students who are taking my courses again, and met many new ones. I used to complain (in a caring way) that students demand your flesh and blood (not literally, of course, but with everything that they need...). I even thought that the very essence of me was getting stripped out by the stresses of teaching, advising, and administering all things pedagogical. I realize now, I wasn't wrong. Students are like children. We like and care about them. Their problems become ours. We hope that they will achieve bright futures and live happily ever after. We want them to do their best but are ready to help them whenever they make mistakes.

Last year, I just added a full-time, fresh from scratch child to a growing brood.

Thanks to my students for challenging and teaching me to be a better mother.

No comments:

Post a Comment