I read a lot of inane student emails, and a fair number of posts from profs talking about their students' emails. But today, today I got a student email that basically said,
Dear Professor Bardiac,
I'm back from [name of war zone] and I'm coming back to finish my degree. [other stuff.]
Best, Student
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I hate the whole damned war, every aspect of it, but I'm teary-eyed with happiness that my student has come back alive and is coming back to school. I think it's probably the happiest email I've ever gotten, certainly in a LONG time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
And the Weekend Roundup you've been waiting for:
1 stack - reading responses
1 stack - reading responses (a different class)
1 partial stack - short close reading assignments
1 partial stack - revisions
1 stack - working bibliographies and annotations
1 partial stack - essays (Handed in Monday, I've done 2/3rds already!)
It's going to be a busy weekend, but the huge committee task is done, pretty much, with some mopping up after Thanksgiving.
The other big task for this weekend is to get my house ready for a Thanksgiving crowd. Eep!
A wonderful email indeed!
ReplyDeleteI'm a little teary eyed myself. thanks for sharing that.
ReplyDeleteThank God.
ReplyDeleteI had the amazing opportunity to see a bit of the military in action last weekend, and the people serving are incredible. I wish we would send them to do better things than we've recently been sending them to do. Tell your student we're all glad.
I have several recently returned vets in my classes. Because we talk about the war in two of my classes, the vets end up self-disclosing about their service.
ReplyDeleteMost of them are adjusting pretty well, but a few have had problems. One very bright person, in particular, articulated the problem well. More or less he told me, 'in Iraq I had 8 other guys to help me do stuff, tell me what to do and problem solve with me, now I don't have those guys anymore'.
Do your student a favor and look for the veteran's support services on your campus. He may not need them, but if he does , the information is invaluable.
Sky, I know! :)
ReplyDeleteAnastasia, thanks for commenting.
Theodora, will do :)
Inside, That's a great suggestion. Thank you!