ON A LIGHTER NOTE, ON THE BRIGHTER SIDE

I have taught at the University of Notre Dame, the University of Michigan, University College Dublin, Bellarmine College in Kentucky, and now for the last four years at Saarland University in Germany. I taught at Michigan for twenty-eight years--and it is now fifty years since I began my teaching career at Notre Dame.

It was been a very interesting fifty years. The invasion of Cuba by the United States--and a total of 28 attempts to assassinate Fidel Castro. The assassination of John Kennedy. George Wallace running for president in the United States. The assassination of Martin Luther King, then of Robert Kennedy. Vietnam. Richard Nixon. The illegal "Contra" army in Nicaragua. Support for Boris Yeltsin. Reagan's invasion of Grenada. George H. W. (C.I.A.) Bush's invasion of Iraq. Clinton bombing Iraq--just to show that he too could murder people. Then George H. Bush's invasion of Iraq, and Afghanistan. Obama's wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Libya. The concentration camp Guantanamo Bay. Torture. And Bradley Manning.

But despite all that, I have been blessed, personally and professionally, with the opportunity to teach. And for most of these fifty years, I have had very good, serious, bright, and thoughtful students to work with. Sometimes I am ashamed to have had such a blessed life. Even during my three years in the Marine Corps, I worked for a good captain, and then a wonderful and courageous colonel--who resigned in protest against the Vietnam war. And during those three years I worked with several hundred young men who were good and thoughtful friends.

Teaching is--to me--something sacred. I'm not a believer in "sin," but if I were I would call going to class unprepared a mortal sin. And to waste students' time talking about worthless things--mere academics--is a serious sin or crime or fault as well.

But for all these years, my students have kept me working hard to be a good teacher, every day. I think that they have been successful, most days. They are responsible for my good days; I am responsible for the bad ones. I hope they haven't been too many. I can think of eleven, these last fifty years. But there are probably more. Maybe a lot more.

When all the bad stuff in the world weighs heavily on me, I think of my students, and of the privilege I have of getting to teach them. And when I come close to despair, thinking I can't change this world, I remember that theycan.

Teaching is a good life. And I am thankful that I am a teacher. The United States defeated me, and I won't teach there any more. But I am teaching in Germany now--this is my fourth year--and I am very, very happy.

Bert Hornback