End-of-the-quarter blogbrain

My English 101 students are all busily typing their last in-class essay, one for which they wrote the prompts, and for which they are their own source. So I thought I should write something, too. They're reflecting on their quarters--some from the perspective of "Running Start" students (those attending community college for dual high school and college credit). Their writing will likely be more interesting than mine, for I don't really have a focus! Or, have any focus right now!

It's always bittersweet to end the quarter--"All meeting ends in parting," attributed to the Buddha, sums it up. I'll never see this collection of students together in the classroom again, and of course, would never want it to be a permanent situation: a special hell realm, never finishing English 101, on their parts, and always teaching the same 20 students, over and over, on my part.

I don't teach in the summer, or I should say, I haven't taught in the summer for years. First I lived off of credit cards in the summer, after my measly savings disappeared; now I live off a small inheritance in the summer, which ever dwindles, as my own youngest son, the age of some of my "older" students--almost 28 instead of almost 21, has needed a "little" financial support of late. He didn't finish high school, but, bored by most classes and teachers, marginalized by most peers, dropped out in 10th grade. He taught himself computer skills, and during one year before the dot.com crash, made more money than I did (when he was 17)--not hard to surpass my "adjunct" salary. But he did not learn to finish, and that is what most of the students in this class are doing, in spite of the starts and stops: in spite of my sometimes less-than-adequate methods or energy levels, and in spite of, in some cases, their own personal challenges that would cause others to give up.

So, even though my 'mate--also an English composition teacher, here at this same institution--and I often question what it is that is so important about teaching "English composition" to the seemingly endless (hopefully, in this economy, this world) sea of students, I see the importance in their working with who they are, where they are, on the page, and bringing closure to this: English 101.