why we teach

I am working my way doggedly through reading, critiquing, and grading a stack of 47 appellate briefs. Each one takes me about an hour and a half. I was sitting here wondering how many more years I can do this work, and if I might more successfully apply my skills in some other job -- a thought process I go through every time I grade papers -- and then I received an e-mail from one of my graduating TA’s, alerting to me this blog post he wrote over on the beyond hearsay blog: http://www.beyondhearsay.com/2011/04/05/uncovering-secret-allies-how-humility-can-lead-to-great-relationships/. (And my apologies for the clunky URL, but sometimes the link insertion feature on this blog platform doesn't work.)

So, if you are similarly struggling through a stack of papers that need to be graded, rest assured, some former student of yours out there is thinking the same thing about you, but just hasn't had a chance to blog about it -- yet.

(spl)