Still trying to figure out the work flow...

I got through all the accumulated homework for tomorrow's 101; I still have a stack (though not quite as large) for the T/Th class--which I will schlep to Advisement with me tomorrow, though I will try to get a chunk of it done before I go to Advisement (assuming I can pry myself out of bed early enough). I'm telling myself that it won't take long to get all the final version stuff marked--and that I can chip away at that next week while I'm conferencing with the 102 students, but of course, I will also still be collecting homework every day...

Well, as always, one way or another, it gets done. (Usually not the way I initially envision it in my head, but that's because I apparently have no clue--after all this time--how long it actually takes me to do anything. Brush my teeth? Half an hour. Climb Mt. Everest? Half an hour.) That includes looking at the sabbatical applications that have come in (which are to be reviewed before next P&B) and writing up the observation I conducted last week. I am grateful that we didn't have P&B today, so I don't have any minutes to write up--and I'll only briefly mention that I still am kicking myself (and resenting other members of P&B) that I'm stuck with that stupid task.

Nothing much of note to report today--except an interesting conversation with a student from today's 101. I'm sure I've talked about him before; he's on the staff of the campus newspaper, so I'll call him the Budding Journalist (though of course he really wants to be the next George R. R. Martin). He is sweet and well intentioned, but he has a serious aversion to anything approaching actual thinking. He said he wasn't putting much in his expanded notes because he has no ideas--so I spent a fair amount of time explaining to him that coming up with ideas was not only his responsibility, it's the only way he's actually learning anything. He comes from the "I don't care about this, so I have nothing to say" camp, and he didn't understand when I explained that he needed to find a reason to care (even if it has nothing to do with what the professor wants) and he needs to figure out something of substance to say. I told him that, as the cub reporter for any news organization he joins, he'll be given the shit assignments, the stories to cover that no one else wants. I said, "If you had to write about a society wedding, how could you approach it so you'd have something to say?" (No ideas.) "How about if you reported on the food choices and what they might reveal about the bride and groom, or looked at the clothing to understand why people were presenting themselves the way they did, or looked at the whole thing as if it were a scene in a book...?" He said, "You just came up with three things in a second, and I couldn't come up with one." Me: "And what's the difference between us?" Him: "You're the professor and I'm a student." Me: "Yep. I've been doing this longer than you've been alive. I will confess, though, that I was also born with the gift of curiosity," and I suggested that it might be beneficial to him to work on developing some curiosity about the world outside of himself.

That kind of solipsistic view of the world--"the only things that matter are the things I already know and like"--pretty much drives me bat shit. (And why do you want to retire early, Prof. P? In large measure so I don't have to continue to try to make a dent in that deeply indoctrinated egoism in so many people.)

I'm sure there's more I could say, I'm sure, but the major re-frame of the day is simply this: I got some work done and can return stuff. And it will all get done. By December 20th, the 21st at the absolute latest, it will all be over, and I will be free of all these particular concerns. I don't have the energy to cheer and fling confetti, but I do feel the weight slowly slipping off my shoulders. Staggering toward the finish again... just a more final finish this time. Thank God (and the faculty Union, and the Board, and the Admin, for the early retirement incentive).