A very fine and welcome post - it’s good to feel not alone! Point 3 weighs on me. I started teaching many decades ago, and right out of school there’s a clear sense of “this is what people teach and this is how they teach it.” But even though, like you, I always revise syllabi and notes, and this year have two new courses, I have this demon on my shoulder whispering “that’s not how it’s done anymore.” I can try to comfort myself that students ought to have faculty from different generations, a diversity in perspective that is often overlooked. But still...
I was just saying something along these lines to an old friend today, Tim. Retirement helped on several levels, but not on all of them. The sense of the world becoming harder can’t be relieved by not working, but a lot of other things can be. (No committee work, no grading, no need to commiserate constantly and futilely.) Anyway, I know the feeling—even if my part of it is now more about aging and living in a world that is so much different than the one I remember when I was more able and excited.
A very fine and welcome post - it’s good to feel not alone! Point 3 weighs on me. I started teaching many decades ago, and right out of school there’s a clear sense of “this is what people teach and this is how they teach it.” But even though, like you, I always revise syllabi and notes, and this year have two new courses, I have this demon on my shoulder whispering “that’s not how it’s done anymore.” I can try to comfort myself that students ought to have faculty from different generations, a diversity in perspective that is often overlooked. But still...
I was just saying something along these lines to an old friend today, Tim. Retirement helped on several levels, but not on all of them. The sense of the world becoming harder can’t be relieved by not working, but a lot of other things can be. (No committee work, no grading, no need to commiserate constantly and futilely.) Anyway, I know the feeling—even if my part of it is now more about aging and living in a world that is so much different than the one I remember when I was more able and excited.