| University teaching is a special job. It is a joy to wake up in the morning knowing that during each working day, an extraordinary event or experience will jut out from the banal rhythms of administration, answering emails and endlessly buzzing telephones. Students, in these ruthless times, desperately want to feel something – anything – beyond the repetitive and pointless patterns of the casualized workplace and the selection of mobile phone ring tones. This cutting consumerism subtly corrodes the self. These students follow anyone who makes them feel more than a number, more than labour fodder for fast food outlets. I believe in these students, and I need to believe that the future they create will be better than the intellectual shambles we have bequeathed them. Being a teacher is a privilege to never take for granted. The bond between students and educators is not severed when a certificate is presented. We share a memory of change, of difference, of feeling that we can change the world, one person at a time. |