Cars

As I drove into Anchorage this morning I was struck by the number of vehicles in the ditch, some flipped over on their roofs - I then thought about Lorin's and my trip to Wasilla last Saturday evening where we saw at least 10 cars in the ditch - after a quick nudge to my Guardian Angel - I first asked myself what in the heck we idiots were doing on the road (especially last Saturday) then I made the connection that for me is inevitable - my students.

With all the variables that make up driving - the act of moving a heavy object from point A to Point B (and sometimes C, D, E, ad infinitum) sometimes we misjudge or under or overestimate our abilities. Or sometimes the unknown or unseen intervenes to change our lives in ways we could not have predicted. I look at my students as capable, intelligent young people - now sometimes I misjudge and occasionally, I suspect, I may even overestimate their abilities or willingness to do a project. I have my view, and then as the cars reminded me - the students have their view too. Perhaps a project I assign may look like an absolute disaster to them, they fear some component of the project as having the power to wreck them - grade wise or socially. All of my assurances that doing this project will be "good for them" may sound more like the old Gary Larson Far Side comic "blah blah blah"

I suspect I am looking for relevance here - I understand the relevance, just as I understand I must drive slower and easier on ice - perhaps sometimes one cannot understand the relevance until they have survived the wreck.