It is July 3rd and I am still in school. This last week has felt like some bizarre twist of Groundhog's Day. Rather than reliving the same day over and over, it has felt like the last few weeks of school are just going to continue, on and on until we skip right over summer.
All around us other schools have long since closed, other families have jetted off to visit their European homes and other children have settled into lazy vacation routines. Not us. We've been braving the rain and flooded streets. We've been getting up early and trudging in with smiles on. We're all a little bit dazed and delerious, like survivors of a nuclear fall out. We look at each other with gazes that seem to ask, You mean we are still here? What are we doing here? How will we carry on without the others?
The day has finally arrived, however. The last day. After this day we will join our comrades who snuggle in warm blankets in the morning, cozy back into couch seats in the afternoon and stay up too late at night all in the name of vacation.
I have been listening to the parting advice, similar to the advice given before those beloved 2 week vacations well placed through out the year. My co teacher tells the students to take time off. To spend at least 10 days without revising, calculating, or studying. Ten days without working. "If you want your brain to rest, you really must take at least 10 days," he says. I wonder if his numbers are scientific, or 'scientific' like mine. The students begin talking about how long their trips will be and where they are going. He tells some of them they should pack some materials- "21 days is too long. You can take some books," he tells a boy who is heading off for a few weeks in New York.
The message strikes me as so different in tone from the "Read, read, read!" messages of American schools. I agree with both, if that's even possible. I agree that kids should take some time off, but in my mind I am thinking it should be the same way we encourage adults to take time off- and it includes electronics. Power down the devices and enjoy life. (Which is not to say there isn't a place for some reading for pleasure.)
My director has been going out of his way to get me to stay. I appreciate his attempts to improve my contract here and was actually feeling elated yesterday when I thought there was a real possibility of staying. My exuberance so surpassed the dull excitement I felt after signing on at the American school that I had to wonder what it was all about. The pursuit of dreams.
Given equal contract terms, remaining at the French school would allow me to pursue some of my passions without taking away from family time. The hours and expectations allow for there to be more to life than just working and I have really come to value that time. Teaching could be more of a safety net while I try to launch myself in a new direction. And I have kind of come to embrace the differences.
But that was yesterday. Today I am sensing that our future path lies at the American school and I will welcome that sense of returning home and being ensconced in all things familiar. But I am holding on to the parting advice. To take life seriously. To make friends faster and eat lunch slower. To power down the devices and rest my brain. To enjoy vacation.
