Sometimes Orien and This World Touch…

Whole worlds come and go like Ocean’s tide when anyone dies and leaves us behind:
their ship leaves while we stand on the quay, knowing our ship will come in, some day.

It’s worth saying here that the dead here is not someone I know. But sometimes, the tales of others remind us of our own mortality, and it is useful, then, to sit up, pay attention, and wave to those going out to Ocean. Our time will come eventually, and nothing will keep us on the wharf when the time comes to depart.

It sounds like he was a good man.

Topsy-Turvy Day

So today was not exactly … bad.

But it was the first day of faculty orientation for school. As of today, I am teaching two English classes (one 7th, and one 9th grade), two Rhetoric classes (both eighth) and a History class (9th). I have never taught English before this year. Half the books in the curriculum I’ve never read. It should be an interesting year.

It also became clear that my school is moving in the direction of being a day school. We are starting a first grade this year, and we will start a second grade next year, and a third and fourth grade in following years. Our day population is way, way up (partly as a result of rising local population, partly as a result of a growing positive local reputation) and our boarding population is slightly down over previous years (partly as a result of 9/11/2001 and now Hurricane Katrina, partly as a result of boarding expense in a poor economy, and partly as a result of other schools offering the same resources/teaching quality). We are still planning on building a dormitory in the next couple of years, but I foresee that dormitory being used to replace one of the older dormitories so it can be renovated for classroom space for a lower school. Call me crazy, but I think it’s on the horizon for the next ten year cycle, and the slow reduction of the boarding population is becoming inevitable as travel becomes expensive and Americans become more insecure about their futures.

The other surprising news of the day was the plan to take another pottery class. It turns out that my day off is now going to be NOT Tuesday. It’s possible my day off will be Thursday, or it’s possible that my day off will be Monday. But my colleague G.A. is going to get Tuesday and Wednesday for his day and evening off, which means my day and evening off have to be Monday and Thursday. This will make long weekends much more bearable, because I will not be on duty for the whole length of them, plus the weekdays before and after. It means I will be able to attend Sou’s reading…. maybe.

There are many other things that were said and done today that I don’t really quite understand. I was pleased to hear that we are taking in several students from the New Orleans area, though exactly what their status will be — as temporary guests or as permanent students — is still a little unclear.