Summer School

My summer is not here yet. I'm teaching summer school. So I'm waiting for July 1st to arrive so that I have my break.

I'm not on my normal campus, and I've taken over a room that a math teacher uses during the school year. It appears that the math teacher is also a coach.

So I am spending this day cleaning trash out of the classroom, arranging desks, and doing lesson plans. Oh, and blogging.

And thinking.

I know what I'm in for here. Well, kind of. I know that these students have failed their course for the year and need to make it up. I also know (because some of these students will be my former students) that some of them won't pass in summer school either, because they just don't care.

And that makes me think about a lot of other things. About people and life in general. About wanting more for yourself. About selling yourself out for stupid things. At least some people know better. I wonder if these students know better.

Bad things have happened to many of my students. Really bad things. And yet, the human race continues. We go through pain and mistakes and we continue. We chose to have babies and raise families, all the while knowing that there is pain in this life. But we do it because we want to or think it's the right thing or the best thing or it's just what human beings do. No one wants to be alone, and maybe togetherness will ease some of the shared pain.

I don't know.

As I live over my many mistakes, maybe this summer with these students full of pain will offer some kind of cleansing. Maybe we can share some pain and some literature and by July 1st something new and better will show itself for all of us.