It's a DJ Wonderful Life

A week or so before last Christmas, as first semester neared its end, I battled exhaustion, as is sometimes the season to do in education. But despite my own end-of-term deflation, like most teachers, I also faced the relentless and somewhat irksome lethargy of my students, whose behavior clearly communicated, whether done well or not, I wish only to be done. I can understand this. I was a student myself once upon a time. You begin to wish desperately to inhabit some future version of yourself who’s already finished and presently celebrates total freedom from the commitment of scholarship and the demands that compel you, day by day, to sustain your energies as you traverse a certain span of growth and learning, though to many, it’s merely a span of accountability; whether we grow or learn is often a matter of intentionality, or even circumstance. The fact remains, most high school students lack the foresight that would prevent their delving solely toward the most immediate satisfaction and the “cheapest,” least edifying path to completion. So often we prefer ease over gain. A great many of my students would honestly rather sit and multiply single-digit numbers to get an A and claim they’ve learned Precalculus than to embrace the challenge of doing so in fact. It’s human nature, I suppose. It certainly takes an open,