Mothering

One of my colleagues and I were talking about sleep the other day. He mentioned how another professor barely slept and she "wasn't mothering. Well, at least not to someone besides college students." I found this idea of professor as parent-figure insightful, especially as my students become increasingly comfortable around me. My students don't knock. I'm getting used to working alone in my office, only to look up and see a student standing there waiting to ask me about an assignment, ask me a question about a lesson I taught a week ago, talk to me about Joss Whedon, or show me their personal journal (no, I am not making that up). As I thought more and more about my colleague's comment, I realized that Julian is not the only child I have taken under my wing this fall.

And if you wonder about the analogy of the college students as children because my students are legally adults, let me tell you this story. I have just finished two weeks of student conferences. During a conference with one of my freshman, he suddenly and without prompting whispered, "I really like your class." Pause. "I need to whisper because it is not cool to like school."

So there are some 60-odd individuals who I am mothering these days. Like Julian, they stretch me to my limits and often keep me up at night. And like Julian, I look at them and think, "How on earth did I get this lucky?"