I have a post brewing.

It's actually a thoughtful post. But it's about something that, if I'm going to write about, I need to do it fully and well.

So it might be awhile before that post gets up.

But today I heard a teacher telling a student something in the hallway that just made me feel good about my school and reminded me that, to me, school feels like home:

"Hey, whatever you need, just ask. We'll take care of it. We're here to help you."

I think that gets lost sometimes. I'm always incredibly nervous about interrupting teachers, or asking them to take time away from their grading, etc, to explain concepts that I'm confused by, especially if the topics are relatively simplistic. But I've never once had a teacher turn me away when I needed help. And I've often had teachers willingly help me with other classes' work, or things for activities, or just things I'm curious about. I've had quick on-topic questions turn into twenty-minute conversations about whether the Amazon Kindle and products like it will ever completely take over the market (the verdict: no, and both the teacher and I would be distraught if it did). And today, when a friend and I needed help with an assignment and none of the teachers we knew in the department were in school, we asked another teacher, who pulled out three reference books and was glad to help us.

I don't know if this is common to all schools, or common to well-funded schools, or special to schools like mine where over sixty percent of faculty hold a master's degree or higher in their field and often worked in that field before starting to teach. But I need to remember that most teachers probably don't mind answering "stupid" questions all that much. They want to help me learn and be the best student I can be.