After 40 years of teaching, I’m retiring. Under the conditions of the Retirement Incentive I’m accepting, I have to teach the Fall Semester. My last day will be December 30, 2016. I’m experiencing mixed emotions. I have one of the Best Jobs in the world. I love teaching. I enjoy working with eager students and my colleagues. But as Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman sing it’s “Time to Say Goodbye.”
All the best chum, hope your last term is a great one.
Sergio, every semester is different. I’m hoping for no surprises and few hassles from now until December 30.
One last chance to shape History through young minds…..
Dan, I’ll give it my best effort. But History is being shaped by the iPhones they all play with.
Hey, you gave it a shot! Sorry it didn’t work out!
Seriously, it’s time to give a younger person a job and rest on your laurels! You obviously loved the work and did a lot of good for a lot of kids! Enjoy the new life ahead of you!
Bob, given the parsimonious nature of the College, I probably won’t be replaced with another Full-time Professor. Instead, chances are the College will hire a bunch of part-time instructors to save money. Thanks for your kind words!
I’m sure many moments will be bittersweet as you move through this semester. I know there’s really no comparison, but last school year the special-needs student I’d worked with for six years aged out of the public school system, so many things we did during the year were for “the last time” (last Special Olympics, last Christmas project, last off-campus trip). It adds a true poignancy to the time.
And I love that song! It’s so romantic, it’s almost cloying…but only almost.
Deb, you’re right about the poignancy about winding down a four-decade career. “Time to Say Goodbye” always touches me…even in Italian!
Enjoy this last semester, George, and think of all the big fat books in your future.
Jerry, I have dreams of Big Fat Books dancing in my head. But, that’s months away. Today I’ll see what cards I’ve been dealt for this Fall Semester.
Congratulations, George. I’ll hoist a slice of cake to you on December 30th as I turn another year older.
Rick, December 30 will be a Happy Day for both of us!
Congrats I know it’s going to be bittersweet. You’ll wonder how you did everything while working after just a couple of months of retirement. (at least I did)
Hopefully there will be some interesting travel in your future, as well as big fat books. Left Coast Crime next year will be in HI, followed by Reno and Vancouver!!
Maggie, we’re going to the BOUCHERCON in Toronto next year. It’s a couple hour drive from our house. Other than visiting Patrick and Katie, our travel plans are open.
No one will ever be able to say you didn’t always give your all, George. The school and the students have been lucky to have you. But it is definitely time to go.
Next year: The Brooklyn Pizza Tour!
Jeff, thanks for your kind words! The Brooklyn Pizza Tour sounds like my kind of activity!
Teaching in college is indeed the best job in the world, but retirement has a lot to offer, as you’ll soon discover.
Right. Now you’ll have that free time to go bookhunting that is so scarce now.
Jeff, other than checking thrift stores every week or so, there isn’t a lot of bookhunting to be done any more. Most of the used bookstores I used to haunt are long gone.
Bill, I’m going to have to find some new hiding places. Diane has “plans” for my Retirement.
Enjoy your last semester, George!
I’m sure you’ll be a good influence on those students – how many of them btw?
And from experience I can tell you that retirement can be great – all those time consuming things you didn’t have time to do are waiting for you now – or rather starting next year, you can start planning now …
Wolf, I have about 150 students in all (more are clamoring to get into my closed sections). That’s a lot of research papers to correct!
Wow!
Will you remember the names of all of them?
Probably you can have a connection only to those who are most active and surprise you in a positive way – at least that’s how it was with me.
Even when I was a student 50 years ago I realised that the profs did that – and I was lucky to be among those “chosen few”.
A bit OT:
I still remember when our Algebra prof tried to prove something on the blackboard and somehow the formula wouldn’t make sense – he took two steps back and looked at the mess, not realising what was wrong.
And then I made him look at me and said:
Professor Müller, is it possible that the + sign in the third line from the top should be a – ? Then the whole calculation would run in a different way and give an easy solution …
That was when he asked for my name and that started my “career”, helped me become an assistant assistant …
Wolf, I remember all the really good students…and the really bad ones.
You more than gave them their money’s worth, George.
Here’s to a long, happy, and healthy retirement for you!
Beth, I’ll miss my colleagues and my students. I won’t miss the goofy Administrators, the bureaucracy, or the correcting of exams.
There’s nothing quite like standing in front of the students on the first day and welcoming them to your class. I’m sure you’ll miss it, but not the paperwork, politics or problems. It won’t be as much of an adjustment for you as many people who have worked year-round with just 2 weeks off, but you’ll still wake up some mornings thinking about work before remembering that’s behind you.
Here’s hoping you have a long, healthful retirement.
Rick, thanks! You sum it up pretty well. Diane, who starts her 13th year of Retirement on Thursday, still has an occasional “School Dream.”
Jackie is so out of the school life she rarely thinks of it, but like Diane she has school dreams.
Jeff, Diane still sees some of her former colleagues. Most of them are in Diane’s Book Club that meets each month.
Finally you adjourn to a life of leisure (& working to tame the chaos in the basement). Congrats! But where did you get that photo? No educational institution in the US would dare to depict such a monochromatic student body on their website or in their literature.
Art, I suspect the photo might have been taken in Utah. Diane wants the chaos in the basement tamed PRONTO!
40 years, Wow! It’s rare that one hears of someone not chomping at the bit to get out of the monotony and burnout. You were blessed, as no doubt were the thousands of kids who benefitted from your instruction. In any case, I can also testify to the wonderful life of retirement. I’ll be a nine-year vet of the leisure life come September 1st. Loving it, and still giddy over getting that nice check every month without having to punch the clock. Congratulations, and enjoy your swan song while you look ahead to what will follow.
Roy, when you have a great job that you enjoy, it’s hard to give it up. But, the Retirement Incentive is too good to pass up.
George, I began in 1963, I officially ended in 2003, but lingered on adjuncting until 2012. I do not know whether it made any difference. I had one last hurrah, a great class, the next night’s class was the worst evaluation in my teaching career. Go figure. I started at $4500, never made more than $55,000–ever. And that is that. I do have Social Security and a small 22-year pension, for time earned. Hurrah for the unions that got me a pension. I can, however, look the young bank teller in the eye, knowing that he was one of my last students and it was one of my best classes, for him and for me. Oh, I did have mostly fun. Gladly did I learn and gladly teach… Congratulations!
James, you share the love of teaching that all Good Teachers possess. And teaching is not a profession one goes into for the money. There are other psychic benefits, like that bank teller who was your former student!
Forty years of teaching is terrific, George. The best service to society, no doubt. My best wishes to you for a wonderful new innings.
Prashant, thank you for your kind words! I really enjoy teaching, but this FALL Semester will be the last one. Plenty of reading awaits me in Retirement!