I write these words with the prospect of an academic spring break ahead, and as you read this column, students, faculty, and administrators are absorbed in the middle of a week when the usual schedule of classes, office hours, committee meetings, and campus activities is in full force.
Next week, however, these campus activities will be temporarily suspended.
This is not to say that work will be cease, because spring break week often provides needed time and freedom for faculty members and administrators to play catch up, to concentrate on overdue projects or looming deadlines.
Many students, like professors, chairs, deans, vice presidents, and the president, spend spring break week deep in serious work.
Not all students head for the beaches in Florida. Some students tend to take off early, stretching spring break week to a week-and-a-half or two.
I have been known to maliciously schedule a major examination the last class session just before spring break, to keep my History students on campus a while longer, but some professors postpone examinations and major projects until after the break, as I did this semester.
Imagine all those students at Daytona Beach, brushing sand from the pages of Biology and Calculus and even History textbooks, taking a few minutes from their ruminations every two hours or so to frolic in the surf!
Well . . . maybe not, but diligent students will nonetheless be greeted back on campus with exams, quizzes, and research paper deadlines.
Students in my History of Kentucky class have told me that they plan to conduct research on Kentucky county reports over the break.
There they are, whiling away the hours in museums, libraries, and archives. Other students are spending spring break away from studies and parties, choosing instead to serve on campus ministries’ mission trips or other volunteering activities.
Still others have gone back home to spend time with families and old high school friends.
For me, spring break week is a mixed affair. The University’s spring break does not coincide with Cammie Jo’s spring break at Murray High School, so our daughter will continue to hit the books at school with track practice following the school day.
Still, I always look forward to spring break with giddy delight, a week away from the usual routine of classes and committee work. I have finally realized that my determination to schedule examinations the last class session before spring break will backfire on me, requiring furious grading during a week of supposed peace and tranquility.
Of course, I will pay for it during the last half of the term, but at least spring break will be “grading free.”
“There is no rest for the wicked,” said Russell Jacks in Jan Karon’s Mitford books. “No rest for the wicked and the righteous don’t need none,” the old sexton would say.
Spring break certainly fails to alleviate all of the burdens of the teaching trade. Anxieties still remain, and I peck away at my writing projects, long deferred during the hustle and bustle of the semester.
So I work away and try not to think about the rush to come. After all, “no man ever sank under the burden of the day,” wrote George Macdonald.
“It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today, that the weight is more than a man can bear.”
Oh, there is one other problem keeping me from the successful completion of my burden of work.
One’s children can be brutally honest—can’t they?—especially with their parents.
I remarked to my son, rather innocently, that all week I had experienced trouble in preparing my Sunday school lesson.
I try to teach a vibrant, inspiring group of the faithful at my church.
Believe me; I learn more from these saints each week than they learn from me. I simply mentioned to Wesley that “the lesson had just not come together” this week. (I think that’s the way I put it.)
Wesley shot back immediately, “Daddy, there is only one reason for that.” “And what is that, Wesley?” I asked. “March Madness!” he replied.
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