Don't fall in love with your work

My first semester of teaching (at the University of Minnesota, Duluth), I had the privilege of shadowing the head of the Writing Department. She taught at 9:00 am, I watched and scribbled notes, and then I taught at 2:00 pm. The idea was that I could just mimic the first time around and then assess over Xmas break and tweak things for myself the following spring. This worked tremendously well! It meant that I didn't stay up all night prep-ing and it meant that I didn't need to labor over creating a syllabus or assignment sheets (at least that first semester). Sure, it was limiting, but as a first time teacher, it was actually quite liberating.

How does that relate to Boice, chapters 15 and 16, though? Well, the head of the department had this saying that she would repeat throughout almost every stage of the writing process for her students: "Don't fall in love with your work." She'd spend good chunks of time explaining how getting too attached can be limiting and it can cause writer's block and it can make writers ignore feedback from others. I loved this from the first time I've heard it, and I continue to use it with my students. Before reading Chapters 15 and 16, I just thought this was something the department head made up (and others didn't use). However, Boice seems to be stating this in his chapter on "Moderate Attachments."

His whole idea is that sometimes we have to let go of our "ideal" piece of work. We have to avoid overattachment and occasionally let go of concerns. While I teach my students this, I guess I've never really applied this to myself: until now. It's hard to admit this (especially as someone who self-admittedly overachieves), but I have to let go of being so attached. There are only so many hours in a day, and there are only so many days left before the end of the semester: I could get really attached and stress out while writing seminar papers, book reviews, and compling portfolios. However, just a few days of break and realization has made me recognize that this isn't good for me or my home-life. So, I'm officially moderating my attachments to my teaching, grading, and paper writing. I've decided that I won't work after 11:00pm and that I can't talk about work or school or teaching after that time. I've also decided that there need to be documentary film breaks and dominoes playing breaks and cooking breaks regularly. Hopefully taking these breaks and focusing on keeping my mind and body healthy will help with some of the negative feelings I expressed last week. So far, so good.