Happy New Year

I suppose that not all of you are celebrating this holiday with me. For most of you New Year’s happens in January. Oh, there may be some of you who focus on the "Fiscal Year," which ends in June (I think, thank God I’m not an accountant). Some of you might be asking, "What’s he talking about? The Jewish New Year? I didn’t know he was Jewish? The Chinese New Year? The Muslim New Year?"

No, silly reader, I’m talking, of course about the New School Year, well under way for a week by the time you’re reading this. Just as farmers measure the passage of time by the crops and the seasons, we teachers and students see January only as the middle of the year, the last end of the first Semester. No, for us in "the United States of Academia," the New Year began last week.

"If your New Year starts in August," you may ask, "what year is it?" After all, on your calendar it’s 2002, for Orthodox Jews, its 5760. Well, it depends who you ask. For most students it’s a name, not a number.

"I’m in THIRD grade," they might tell you. Or you might hear a parent tell you "Mary Beth is gonna be a Sophomore this year." It can get confusing, like when you ask a teacher how old a child is, "Well, let’s see, Johnny’s sister is a fifth-grader now, so I think he’s a first grader, isn’t he? No- wait, wait,wait, he’s in Mrs. Browns class, so he must be a second grader this year." Of course they never tell you the child’s age, you’re just supposed to figure out in your head how old you were when you were in second grade and assume that Johnny is about that old, plus-or-minus a year.

For teachers, it’s different. I have a friend for whom this is the year "15," although they’re thinking they may only have three or four left because they’re starting college classes toward a new career. Other’s start counting backwards, "Only two more till the IPERS (pension) kicks in, I’m thinking maybe three more, but I’ll probably still sub after that."

Still other teachers restart their calendar depending on their location or responsibility. I believe our new Superintendent at Boyer Valley was in the year 18 when she became a principal, but then there was a completely different year system as principal and of course now this is only year ONE. Can you imagine? As if the world was just created? How strange, not 2002, but just ONE.

For me this is not just the New Year, it’s the new decade. No, wait, not yet, this is the LAST year of the decade. Just as 2000 wasn’t really the start of the new Millennium, 2001 was. I started teaching in 1993, so this is just the start of year TEN, the second decade won’t start until next August.

Confused? So are History, Math, Science and Accounting teachers, so don’t feel bad. Oh, did you know that on the Chinese calendar, this is the year of the Horse? Well, I don’t know about Charter Oak-Ute, but at Boyer Valley, this is the "year of the Goose." Don’t ask.

Well, whatever year it is for you, make it a good one, full of learning and challenge. Don’t let the anxiety of book reports put your stomach in knots. Enjoy the aromas of pencil shavings, chalk dust, magic markers, teacher’s lounge coffee, hot lunch and gym socks. Think of August as a time of renewal, of fresh starts and second chances. If you’ve broken all your resolutions