Status Update: Jeffrey Brauch is missing the classroom

I (to the mild disbelief of my children) have a Facebook account. One of Facebook’s most used features is the status update. With a click of the button, I can learn what a bunch of my friends report they are doing, thinking, or wishing at any given time.

So here for my readers—Facebook friends or not—is my status update: I am missing the classroom today.

This semester has been a bit unusual. Unlike the fall semester, I am not teaching a regular class. I will be co-teaching a 1 credit class with former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft (Human Rights, Civil Liberties, and National Security) every day from March 30 to April 9. But I have really been out of the classroom since December. And I don’t like it.

I have stayed busy with student recruiting, fundraising, catching up with alumni, budget matters, faculty and staff meetings—and trying to stay on top of daily emails. All of it is important; much of it has been fun. But nothing matches the joy of being with students in the classroom.

It is what takes place in the classroom that is the reason for this school to exist. The rest of my activities are just means—important means, to be sure—to the end of teaching students. The most challenging, invigorating, and funny moments of my job take place in a room full of students as we push each other to think deeply and creatively about ideas.

I can’t wait until March 30!