A Radical Sabbatical

Okay, I know its time to write whats been going on but its been making me very anxious.  I guess the idea that its now April and I’m moving closer to returning to work has me so filled with anxiety. 

School has not been a joy this semester.  I so enjoyed last semester but mainly because it was more challenging.  This semester is all papers no tests.  Writing papers has never been my thing and its even less so, now.  I had a bit of an incident in the classroom the other day.  The Professor was lecturing and the girl next to me and I were reading each others projects.  Clearly, we should not have been reading, we should have been paying attention to the lecture.  There are 15 students in the class, so the teacher will notice anyone who is not paying attention.   Suddently, I heard the Professor screeching at us, “what do you think you’re doing?”    I of course, did not bother answering as I was in shock that she took the road of the neurotic professor.   On the other hand, my peer turned to her and said, we’re reading each others projects.  With that the Professor went off on us and could not refocus on the lesson.

Now mind you, I am older than this Professor but I felt she could have handled the matter differently.  She could have just said, ladies, this is not the time to do this, please put it away.  Afterall, this was not an elementary school this was a graduate program.   I realized at that moment, that people on the hierachy in College are no different than the people in the DOE (where I work).   I would not be the least bit surprised if this woman deducted 5 points from our final grade.  In our syllabus she wrote, no reading in the classroom.   hmmm, imagine that. 

So, school this semester is not exactly what I would have liked it to be but I am learning a great deal about children on the spectrum.  Now my silver jewelry class is awesome.  It has really opened me up to being creative and I actually enjoy making the jewelry.  I’m having problems with soldering but I’m hoping to get the hang of it with more practice.

My parents have been fortunate with the weather this winter as its allowed them to continue going to the senior center.  However, my moms dementia is just awful.  Her physical deterioration is becoming more and more noticeable and her loss of bodily functions very difficult.   I’m never sure whether to be grateful that she is unaware of things or not.  

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 2:53 pm and is filed under Aging, Education, Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.