O me, to be in class!

I miss my students. I miss the much-repeated question, "Why are we learning this?" and the look of understanding as the story comes to a close. Teenagers are a marvelous breed of human--exuberant, creative, funny, and open to those who care about them.

Well, for now I will simply pray for former students now in college and future students spread all over the world. And--since I am an English teacher without an audience--I think I'll leave you with a little Whitman. No pop quiz or sentence diagrams from me, just this from Leaves of Grass:

O me! O life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill'd with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew'd,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring--What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer
That you are here--that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.