When to Retire?

People tell me I will know when it is time to retire. 

I think I know it's time--almost. 

Retiring for me does not mean filling out the paperwork and walking away. I am so deeply entrenched in so many things that I have to spend a year untying knots in those ropes that bind me to the institution and responsibilities and others.  

But I have informed my supervisor that I will relinquish my chair duties on a specific date. Whether I remain for a while to teach is not decided. 

I have worked in higher education since January of 1978, so "I've done my time." And there are other matters 

1. The constant change, sometimes seemingly just for the sake of change, is stifling. This semester we are dealing with a new faculty evaluation system, new core curriculum, new assessment procedures, and new hiring/HR policies. We also have to vacate our building, completely, for a period of renovation, and relocate, and oh, yes, teach and serve and do research/professional development and in my case run a department. I am breathless.  

2. The students in an access institution, and perhaps elsewhere, require so much more attention, bandwidth, emotional investment, and class preparation because of their emotional health issues and educational deficiencies.  Jean Twenge, the expert in this, says that they are emotionally about 15 years old. Yes, they are.  Not all--some are super people, but enough are undergoing mental and emotional health struggles that they can sap everything. The only benefit--we don't deal with their parents!

3. These situations have made collegial relationships harder. 

I do not think I am alone, although I am overcommitted. Most important for me, our grandchild is coming! I have a responsibility to her, more than to the other ties that bind.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reflecting on Reflection in Learning

Reflection is the subject of my next couple of presentations, so here are my recent jottings. Hopefully a reader can make some sense of them;however, the whole point of this post is that reflection can follow a structure but will not necessarily create a structured record. The reflection record will need to be reshaped to be palatable for a "judge" or "critic" or "instructor." Reflection tends to be framed negatively. If we dig too deep we will only find bad stuff; if we reflect on teaching practice, we will focus on what failed rather than succeeded. Why? Assessment focuses on finding the nonlearners and changing to get more learners, but it ignores that most of the students did learn, so why were there successes? Leads to burnout. Boud & Walker’s idea of validation not well developed but relevant. It is most close to critical thinking—testing it against other knowledge, theories, internal consistency, other data (other learner’s data) Ref
Read more

Calling all College Instructors

I had an interesting experience last semester. In a lecture on perception, I mentioned (because I had been reading so) that people with autism (my brother has it) do not perceive less than others, but they perceive more and that their behaviors are to block out or filter or deal with the overload. One boy in the back of the room said, "I know that's true because I'm autistic and .... " That's one of those "moments of truth." I often do not handle them well, but this one I did. Since the young man had not done anything that indicated autism to me (other than being nerdy), after he talked about himself I said, "Do you have Asperger's?" to which he said, "Yes, and ADD." Another young man in the class was giving me signals that he was in the same boat. There is something ironic and yet appropriate about this incident--only a student with Asperger's or Austism Spectrum Disorder would just announce it so boldly in class.
Read more

First Generation Students: Be aware

 I confess to not having blogged here for quite a while.  I will be in the future--I'm doing some relevant writing. My current research interest is gratitude, in general, in communication, in spiritual development, and in higher education. Although not quite linked to that, this article is thoughtful and reminds us of "the secret life of college students." https://diverseeducation.com/article/138698/?utm_campaign=DIV1902%20DAILY%20NEWSLETTER%20FEB15&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua
Read more