Anxious Dreams about Teaching Again and Again
I begin teaching a quarter-long seminar in two weeks. I have been teaching youth and adults for nearly forty years. I am turning 78 next month. And I have had dreams of walking into class unprepared and discussions falling flat; of students walking out of my class. How can that be?
First, I am not the first nor last teacher to have anxiety-ridden dream. Artist and long-time teacher Eric Baylinwrote a song about teacher anxiety cresting at the end of the summer when students return to school. Here are two stanzas of that song:
I dream I can’t control my class. Oh, me! Oh, my!
They laugh; they jeer; and I’m about to cry, to cry.
I wake up with this awful fear
I might have chosen the wrong career
First, I am not the first nor last teacher to have anxiety-ridden dream. Artist and long-time teacher Eric Baylinwrote a song about teacher anxiety cresting at the end of the summer when students return to school. Here are two stanzas of that song:
I dream I can’t control my class. Oh, me! Oh, my!
They laugh; they jeer; and I’m about to cry, to cry.
I wake up with this awful fear
I might have chosen the wrong career