Yet, despite all this celebration of being free, I find the turn of the calendar to September exhilarating, and I have felt this way since childhood. I always loved the smell of fresh school supplies: sharpened pencils, blank notebooks, and the stiff pages of new textbooks. There was always a feeling of awe with my thinking that I, as a tabula rasa each school year, would be etched upon and thus become closer to the essential knowledge of the ages, passed down from Aristotle, Euripides, Einstein (et al) to the teacher or teachers of the moment.
I still feel this excitement now, wondering about meeting new colleagues, seeing my new students for the first time, and learning as much (if not more) from them as they will from me. It is this symbiotic aspect of education that has always had the greatest appeal for me: the idea that we learn and teach as we teach and learn, thus making ripples start in the small pond that will someday become waves in the ocean. It is an always occurring and reoccurring process, and that is what I like most of all. Education always begins anew each September, but it never ends.
So, as we celebrate Labor Day, let us not forget those who work hard to educate our children. Let us remember all those who work hard everywhere doing all sorts of jobs, but also let us acknowledge that this is the day that marks an ending and a beginning. In this way we can embrace the change in calendar and seasons and face the reality of responsibility, but also know that with those cooler days and falling leaves comes the fright of Halloween, the bounty of Thanksgiving, and the beauty of the holiday season.
Occurring and reoccurring, the cycle brings us back again and again. Thus, we get to a point we have always known and yet we revel in the great expectations of what each new day will bring. Ladies and gentlemen, I think that is what reality is really all about. So, let us appreciate the days and months ahead and remember that summer will return for our enjoyment in 2008.
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