One of the true quirks of teaching is that you work in a world in which everyone is 16 or 17 every year – year after year – until you retire. In your first year of teaching they are all 16 or 17 and then years later they are still 16 and 17. This is especially true if you are, like I was, a bit of a hermit and kept in your classroom most of the day seeing only students. It is spooky to work for years and never see them age -as if they are frozen in time. Read more