Wednesday, June 02, 2004

Boys Will Be Boys 

Circled my office on the yearbook's inside flap a dozen times or more tonight ("I'm watching you!") while the almost-men of Hayden Hall alternately crammed for finals and trucked boxes down the stairs for summer storage. Grew closer to kids I hardly knew all year, and thought about the way in which, every year, my community dissapates, leaving we few resident faculty hiding behind our blinds, exhausted, in front of glowing screens and vacation maps. Brought a book but never opened it.

Two nights in a row of dorm duty in the last home stretch of the term seem to have driven me to nostalgia, as is my wont this time of year. In two four hour shifts, these proud boys have reminded me how much I loved living in the dorm the five years previous, and how much I missed it this year.

But hints around the edges, too, continue to justify leaving them behind. Khan, a four year senior who has grown from a shy ESL kid to a mature and scarily intense Student Leader, left a box of wooden practice swords in the goodwill pile, as they'd be too much trouble to drag home to Korea; I had to stay late tonight to break up a gang of his peers and charges who, having discovered them, were hacking and slashing their unpracticed way down the corridor, terrifying the Sophomores and pissing off those still deep in study.

Too, there was some big news in the rumor mill tonight: a recently discovered website, enumerating an unprovable sexual predatorship by a teacher who moved on just long enough ago for these kids to know him as 9th graders, passes through student email accounts by forward, and student ears by whisper and shush. The issue was too sensitive to seize as teachable moment, I fear, but the damage done made me ashamed nonetheless -- it will cast suspicion on us all by proxy, and surely flavor the way these student's future minds will prize and curse our mentorship.

To complete the trifecta, I had to lock up the kitchen before I left. Someone left the stovetop on high and just walked away. Good thing I noticed it -- it would seriously suck to have the house burn down two days before graduation, plane tickets, passports, term papers and all.

Deapite and because of it all, I continue to toy with applying for the open House Director position next year. Sigh...is there anything in life less certain than the holism of living where one works?

posted by boyhowdy | 11:43 PM |

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