just call me mr. feeny

i'm going to be the 12th grade dean of students next year.  yikes, huh?  i'm currently the 11th grade dean of students, but just for the girls (in the 12th grade there is only one dean for the whole grade, while in the other grades there are two gender-specific deans), and for me there is nothing easier than working with 11th grade girls.  i was an 11th grade girl once (in 1998 and 1999, to be exact).  i know what it's like.  working with boys - well, that will be different.  but hopefully just a little different.  we're all human beings, right?  how hard can it be?  (famous last words?)

last month, when i announced to the 11th graders that i would be their dean next year, they clapped and cheered.  CLAPPED AND CHEERED.  with genuine excitement.  i don't know what response i was expecting, but clapping and cheering was not it.  i really was touched.  and then, as the clapping and cheering ended, one kid called out, "you're like mr. feeny!"  luckily, i was a teenager in the '90s and was a devotee of boy meets world on friday nights, so i knew enough to say, "i'm going to need to catch up on my boy meets world - did mr. feeny follow them, too?"  the kid replied, "yeah, and then they all went to the same college and he taught there, too."

that, friends, might be a stretch.  but i'm excited nonetheless.