January 23, 2014

Lit perfumed candles yesterday to get some of the dogginess out of the house. They should still be burning at this dark and morning hour. The kitchen fills up nicely. Dragged around yesterday because of not feeling well, though “not feeling well,” thank God, never advanced into outrightly sick. We had a great time in Humanities, two of the young men agreeing that the discussion left them “pumped up.” Me too, in my achy and wanting-to-go-home way. Slept most of Wednesday. No reason not to do the same today. Except we do have a meeting about “assessment”, in which I intend to cross my arms, grit my teeth, and refuse to play. Every useful  move we make ends in an outcome which cannot be objectively assessed, and yet we move forward, wasting our time and bastardizing our vocabulary so a few otherwise superfluous administrators can feel they hold sway. The only things which can be evaluated numerically are numbers. We are given the task of attaching numerical equivalents to hunches and prophecies. Teaching would be a thousand times more efficient, more honored, more productive if left to the teachers. Can anyone really doubt this?