Anxiety

Has it ever occurred to you that teachers are often just as nervous about a new school year as their students are? It hadn't to me either, until recently. I'll be a middle school English teacher in two weeks, and I have literally been having nightmares about the first day of school.

Does it seem to you that students perceive teachers as being above emotion? When I was in school, I never imagined that nervousness or insecurity or flat-out fear were feelings that adults, much less teachers, were capable of experiencing. I, for one, will be relying on that oblivion of adolescence come August 13th.