Attack of the killer syllabi!

Sometimes it feels as if my syllabi are ganging up on me, conspiring to inundate me with the most demanding reading, prepping, and grading all at the same time--but then I remember who's responsible for writing those syllabi. If I'm running as fast as I can just to keep up, I have no one to blame but myself.

Maybe all this grading will go more quickly if I switch to a different chair, or maybe the exam will be easier to write in a larger font with narrower margins. Some of my students believe in this kind of magical thinking, and apparently there's something to it because every student sitting in the center row in one of my classes received a well-earned A on the first major essay. None of them, however, tried the bigger-font trick. Last week I read a draft written in 14-point type with two-inch margins all around and extra space between paragraphs, but I must have said something persuasive to the writer because I don't see any sign of such trickery in the revised essays. 

In fact I'm mighty pleased with my classes so far: five weeks in and I'm not tearing my hair out to any significant degree. One student had to leave campus because of a health problem, which made me sad but I'm confident he'll be back eventually; another is struggling to figure out how to submit papers in a format I can open, but we can work through that. Most of them seem to be doing most of the reading, and many are engaging in class discussions. They're not all earning A's, but neither do they all expect to. No complaints so far.

I had expected a complaint from a student who decisively bombed the first essay. I agonized over grading that paper, worried that the grade would cause the student to drop the class and resolve never to take another literature class--or, worse, suffer a breakdown and start kicking puppies. But then the next time he came into the classroom, he came up to me with a grin and said, "I wrote that paper 30 minutes before class. I'll do better next time."

So it's all good. Sure, I'm up to my eyeballs in quizzes and papers to grade and I have more drafts coming in Wednesday and an exam to write by Friday, plus I need to get caught up on the mowing (except it's raining again) and I just killed another weed-eater (my third, I think) and the house could use a good scouring and eye fatigue is causing my left eyelid to twitch violently at the least opportune moments, but I can't complain that the syllabus is working me too hard because it's doing exactly what I told it to do, and doing it very well indeed.

(Hey, do you suppose switching to a bigger font will make my eyelid stop twitching?)