Students will sometimes ask, "What do you do in the summer?" Partially this relates to the fact that they mainly think that we only exist in our classrooms, trapped in a spectral form like Chinese hungry ghosts, but also because I don't think we do much of anything even in the school year. Social media is breaking down that barrier as we're in more constant, albeit virtual, contact. For instance, last night I was trying to watch a French film (and crushing over Marie Dompnier) but had to balance out answering competing Tweets from Jo Ames, Meg Kelting and Max Bell, who were hanging out, as they tried to convince me to let Jo into my fall semester Islam class. At one point I stopped the film and went upstairs to my laptop to get online to check the status of the class. When Jo discovered that there was one opening left she wanted me to put her in the class, which led to this response: "I'm not your secretary, you pixie prima donna." Actually, despite my protestations to the contrary, I like being in contact with my students (even marginal ones such as Ames, Kelting and Bell), even on social media, and I think my colleagues do a better job drawing that line.Why? It may be that I really love teaching or I'm so active on this blog and on Twitter that it seems dishonest to create a barrier that I clearly don't have with the rest of the world or it could also just be that as I see the end of my career creeping a little closer day by day it's increasingly clear to me that soon, soon, all too soon this will all be over and there will be no students to care about what I think.
But back to the original question: What do we do in the summer? Normally I teach, but, as has been noted, this is the first summer in thirty-two years that I'm not teaching. There are dumb chores, which, if it would ever stop raining here in Vermont, I'd get around to tackling, but everyone has those. For some of us we try and take the opportunity to get around to some research and writing, which is tough to do if you teach a 4/4 load (especially if you're, like me, not that bright to begin with). I'm devoting a lot more time to working on the epics project, especially the Ramayana right now, and trying to finish Proust, the novel will be finished this weekend but the commentary will take months and whatever I turn it into, doubtless, years. In addition professors take the summer to devote themselves to much needed professional development, which might mean conferences or CIEE seminars or it could just be getting together with other professors to read and discuss interesting topics and works. A couple months back Chuck Bashaw approached David Kite and me and asked if we wanted to get together over the summer to discuss Sufi mysticism. Like all right thinking individuals, I immediately said yes. We get together every couple weeks to discuss the poetry of Rumi or the 18th surah from the Quran or The Bezels of Wisdom by al-Arabi. We've now dragged Eric Ronis into the group. This should all be something that you'd admit with shame, but, hell, we're professors, and it's the summer.
But back to the original question: What do we do in the summer? Normally I teach, but, as has been noted, this is the first summer in thirty-two years that I'm not teaching. There are dumb chores, which, if it would ever stop raining here in Vermont, I'd get around to tackling, but everyone has those. For some of us we try and take the opportunity to get around to some research and writing, which is tough to do if you teach a 4/4 load (especially if you're, like me, not that bright to begin with). I'm devoting a lot more time to working on the epics project, especially the Ramayana right now, and trying to finish Proust, the novel will be finished this weekend but the commentary will take months and whatever I turn it into, doubtless, years. In addition professors take the summer to devote themselves to much needed professional development, which might mean conferences or CIEE seminars or it could just be getting together with other professors to read and discuss interesting topics and works. A couple months back Chuck Bashaw approached David Kite and me and asked if we wanted to get together over the summer to discuss Sufi mysticism. Like all right thinking individuals, I immediately said yes. We get together every couple weeks to discuss the poetry of Rumi or the 18th surah from the Quran or The Bezels of Wisdom by al-Arabi. We've now dragged Eric Ronis into the group. This should all be something that you'd admit with shame, but, hell, we're professors, and it's the summer.
 |
| Bashaw and Kite, the Mad Men of Champlain College. |
No comments:
Post a Comment