I had my annual going-back-to-school dream last night. For years and years, it was exactly the same: I got to work on the first day of school, but I was told that even though I worked there and would be paid, my records showed that I had to finish one more high school math class, and I was given a schedule and a locker. But I never went to the class, only went to work in the library, and then on the last day of school I realized that I had to take the exam, but had never gone to class or studied! I couldn't get my locker open to get my book out, and I dashed up and down the halls of the math wing, unable to find the room.But this year's was different, most of it anyway. I got to school and was a student, as was K. For some reason, she was not embarrassed that a) we were both freshmen, even though we were our real ages, and b) that her mother was in her classes. But all of the classes we were scheduled for were in the C wing, and all of the rooms were incomplete, mostly having no finished floors or doors, not to mention desks and chairs. (Which is exactly what these rooms really do look like at the moment.) The really annoying thing was that they hadn't posted numbers outside the rooms, so hordes of kids were running around and bumping into each other, trying to figure out where to go.
And then I was in the new library, which was somehow also in the C wing, and was tiny, just the size of two classrooms with the wall between them removed. But everything in it was new and finished, and I had a freshman class coming in to get the first lesson in how to do a term paper. K and all her friends were in the class. There was hardly any room for all the kids to sit, no tables, just chairs, and the library had been laid out so badly that the photocopier was right in the middle of the teaching space, and people kept coming in and interrupting me every minute.
But the worst thing was that the SCM wasn't there; his predecessor HMM (the Horrible Mean Man) was, and he kept interrupting me too, every minute, telling me how to do what I was doing. I would keep reminding him that he was a terrible teacher and this was my thing and that I was in charge now anyway. (He was there at his current retired age, just a crotchety old man kibbitzing from the background.)
[kibbitz -- to thrown in your two cents, to mix in. As opposed to kibbutz, a collective farm in Israel.]
Anyway, so a kid rushing in to use the copier knocked me down, but was otherwise polite, and I was writing up a detention slip (a form which does not exist in real life) for him and assigning him library detention (which does sometimes happen in real life, but not often) when I woke up.
I wonder if K being more or less a colleague in this dream is indicative of something. On the phone yesterday, we both marveled at her now being a senior in college, and she's being so grown up; get this. She's been checking online and got the list of all her textbooks and got them all, and saw that for her senior thesis class -- as a history major, she has to write a 30 to 70 page paper based on primary resources -- had even posted a reading assignment that was going to be discussed in class on day one (today) so she's already doing homework, even though class hadn't started yet. Just like a grown-up. Soon to be a fellow teacher, a colleague, perhaps.
Speaking of which, R's friend is now seriously considering becoming a school librarian, which is very exciting to me. I've already offered to write any letters he might need, and to give him a place to student teach. It would be like having a protege! And he's the funniest human being on the planet, too. And maybe if he grows up and gets a real job he will marry one of my daughters, either one, I don't care. I'm not picky.
I'm going in to work for a few hours tomorrow morning, but I drove by today and took this picture. I think it will be on the school home page for the first day of school.
