Time flies

Greetings, as the pupils write here.

The past month has been relatively unsurprising. I have continued to help out close to 250 pupils, over several grades, who need training for their state exams. The first round of examinations has passed and the results have brought smiles to my teachers’ faces. Whatever my effectual contribution, the pupils have done very well and have been gracious enough to credit me with some of their success. As you might well imagine, the staff are rather pleased with their allocation of my time and I must confess that it was smart of them to employ me in this manner.

I am currently mostly dealing with the school’s eldest pupils who have an oral exam spread over the next few weeks. At times, it seems as if the 19^th-century American scholar and educator Thomas Raynesford Lounsbury’s remembered quotation "We must view with profound respect the infinite capacity of the human mind to resist the introduction of useful knowledge" is the anthem of the weary in the teacher’s lounge, but I am finding the pupils very receptive and intelligent, for the most part.

The school tolerated a lighter schedule at the start of my assistantship to allow me the time to find a place to live so, in this busy part of the year, I am working a few extra hours here and there to help out. It must be this, in part, which gives me the impression that time is creeping up on me. It is hard to believe I am over halfway through my stay. Likely another part of this is that since I am now settled in a room in which I am able to stand, I have started to ponder my future. As a chapter of my life draws to a close, I am finding myself increasingly concerned with what will follow.

Overall, this is proving to be an enjoyable experience in the company of Maastricht’s teenagers. My somewhat special status and the severe scarcity of vacant classrooms have meant that I have even been able to enjoy some of the spring sun’s first diffident rays by teaching in the schoolyard. The only tinge of disappointment clouding my trip so far is the manifest lack of Dutch in my life. I even speak more French since every other day I bump into a talkative assistant from Brittany who as is thirsty for conversation as a man lost in a desert.

I will sign off by wishing you all the best.

Sauce,

A