My Last March Malaise

In education circles, March is known to be a particularly nasty month.  Not only is it one of the longer months but it is a month without holidays or breaks, with the rare exception of a very early Easter and/or Passover break.  Add in the fact that it is usually ushered in by gloom and snow and ice and ushered out by gloom and rain and chill, well, it's a rather awful month here in the Northeast.  The children want nothing more than to break free of classrooms, confining winter clothes and the boredom of cabin fever.  The catechists and teachers are exhausted by their efforts to contain or redirect all the repressed energy of a roomful of children or, worse yet, adolescents.  Parents always seem more irascible in March, almost impossible to please.

I have survived my last long March in education.  Forgive me while I burst into a few bars of the Hallelujah Chorus.  Next March, I'll be enjoying the freedom of retirement, and probably missing the children desperately, but not the stress and angst.