Good enough, considering

Lately I'm working on being a good-enough teacher. Not great, not perfect, not wonderful, sometimes not even terribly good, but just good enough, considering.

Considering what?

Considering that we've reached the point in the semester when everyone wants something from me (grades, money, help registering for spring courses).

Considering that I can't seem to find time to eat lunch or take my car to the shop or iron a pair of pants, which will be a real problem in the next day or two unless I want to start wearing sweats to class.

Considering that there's no such thing as the Perfect Teacher and if there were, she would not be me. Be I. See? Sometimes I'm not even a particularly good grammarian, but I'm usually good enough. Considering.

Considering the demands of administrative tasks and committee foolishness, it's a wonder I have time to be any sort of teacher at all. Nobody becomes a college professor out of an earnest desire to attend mindless, pointless, contentious committee meetings week after week, but that's an important part of the job. Last week I sat on a committee that actually made progress on a particularly knotty problem, but this week the same group will have to "revisit the issue" because of some objections from the Powers That Be. Progress is slow, but maybe it's the best we can hope for, considering.

Considering the hours I spent yesterday and today beating my head against a particularly stubborn technological problem, I don't know when I'm supposed to prep tomorrow's classes or read the big pile of drafts that's slowly drifting across my desk, and I don't know how detailed my comments will be considering the size of those draft-drifts. I'm not trying to write the world's greatest student-draft comment, which would sum up all accumulated wisdom on the topic of writing in one easily digested phrase; instead, I'll write comments that are good enough, considering that the papers themselves, with a few bright exceptions, rarely rise above that level.

Considering the cold, the weather, the long drive to work in the dark, and considering the existential angst associated with the human condition, I've come to believe that good enough ought to be good enough. I'm not aiming for perfection, people! If good enough is good enough for me, then it ought to be good enough for anyone. Considering.