2020 Medley #18 – Non-pandemic issue
I only have four articles to share today. I had dozens, but most dealt with the ongoing problem of teaching during a pandemic. I also found that I had a lot to say about each of the four articles I chose, so fewer seemed better.
GUILT AND LOSS IN RETIREMENT
I read once that the most common cause of death for men in America is retirement. Since I’ve made it ten years past my retirement date, I think I’m relatively safe, but retirement isn’t always easy and, for some, it’s hard to let go.
Peter Greene, who blogs at Curmudgucation, has been retired from teaching for about three years. In this post, he discussed the guilt he felt about not being in the classroom…leaving unfinished business when he retired…and some implied feelings of abandoning his fellow teachers.
For me, as an elementary teacher, there was something else, though the guilt he talked about was surely a part of it. As an elementary classroom teacher, each year was a new start. Everyone started fresh. At the end of the year, we said goodbye to our kids knowing that we did what we could; we’d taken them as far as they could go. The end of each year came with a sense of loss for the students who moved on.
I felt the same sort of loss when I retired, which is why I returned to school the following school year as a volunteer. I missed working with children. I missed CONTINUE READING: 2020 Medley #18 – Non-pandemic issue | Live Long and Prosper