is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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Best Ever?
Best Ever?
Tonight I had my students over. I ordered some pizzas and made two cakes, and some of them brought beer (they are all old enough for drinking). (Also, it is a QB tradition for professors to have students over for dinner.) We sat around eating and talking about the final papers they are writing, and about Levinas in general. It was fun. Of course, as is always the case with these things, some students experienced the evening as fun, others as being held hostage by more work. But I gave them free pizza and cake, so I�m guessing they made out OK.
A couple of my students brought up really great points, asked good questions, engaged me in interesting conversation about the semester�s themes and their ramifications. It was good to see how much thinking they�ve done. Some of them are smart enough and also interested in the same philosophical themes as me, such that I wish they weren�t my students so I could befriend them and talk about philosophy while drinking whiskey. Ha. But luckily I do have people like Gayle and Catherine for that, and sometimes Yoktan, or my colleagues here, David or Jerry or Cristina.
Anyway, to prepare for my house full of students, I borrowed some chairs from my neighbor for the evening. My neighbor is also a teacher at QB, in the English department, and he knows some of my students. He said, �this is a meeting of the Levinas class, right? It should be fun!� I said, �yeah. When we had our last official class meeting I actually felt a little sad, sorrowful that I would not see some of them again!� (Many of my students are graduating seniors.) And he said, �well, of course! This might be the best group of students you�ll ever have!�
I hadn�t thought of it that way until now. And I�m certain I never would have thought of it that way had he not offered it as a possibility. But he�s right. I�ve mentioned this in the diary before, but my students are truly great. It isn�t just QB and it�s not just the subject matter and it�s not just whether or not I�m a good teacher. I got lucky this semester, by which I mean, many of the best students at this school, exceptional thinkers and hard workers and nice interesting young people, all ended up in this small class together. It might just be the best group of students I�ll ever have.
So I feel fortunate, and also slightly sad.
But of course I�m also glad that the semester is ending, that I�m having a fun party this weekend and will have house-guests and social activities, and then, soon after that, I�ll be in SF for three months.
There�s still plenty of work to do. I have to finish writing a paper by Friday, and then go out of town the next weekend to present the paper at a conference. And I have to figure out what books and files, etc., I need to bring out west with me, and I have to pack up things to make room for my subletters. And I also have to grade those final papers my students are writing. I think these last weeks will not be restful.
For now, however, I�m sitting here drinking the beer my students left behind, watching TV and aiming with Gene about cats. Work can begin tomorrow.
10:51 p.m. - May 02, 2006
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