Today, in my public school class, I came to the sad and terrible realization that my students and I have the exact same goal: waste class time. We would love it if the clock hand swept by just a little quicker; if the next group exercise took just a little longer; if the noisy chaos at the begining of class lingered just a few more minutes. My experience last week confirms this– as I rounded out my time in class, I thought it would be a good idea to continue until the next period’s teacher arrived. The minutes ticked by, one after another, and I continued shouting instructions and correcting grammar as the students worked through the exercises. Before long I noticed that I had taught a full 20 minutes over and decided to wrap up and leave. By the time we’d completed the end-of-class ritual “Goooodddbbyyyyee teeaaacchhhheeer” “Goodbye class, thank you.” I walked into the hallway, and found the science teacher sinfully enjoying her reprieve.

I will need to struggle now to resist the urge to enable this joint desire. That’s why we play games, I realize. We don’t teach anyone English, we just help them pass the time just a little faster. So much for any illusion I had about being a legitimate teacher.