New semester

These students humble me every day. In nearly every class, I do a diagnostic writing. I’m just trying to see where they are and where they might get to under my stead. I gave them an hour. Many students still wrote for only ten minutes or so, many did just one paragraph. But even in those, they reveal themselves with such unguarded honesty it makes me ache. The beginning of the semester is valuable, before life gets in the way and messes everything up for all of us. Everything is shiny and full of new possibilities and resolutions and commitments and so much hope. I really need to remember this feeling around midterm, when I have 200 papers to grade and no place to hide. I have to remember how they looked that week, before all the shine fell away.