20151023.0628

The school at which I teach boasts having the largest homecoming celebration in the country. Whether this is accurate or a clever bit of trademarking (which is true of its health slogan) is unclear to me, but I do know that the university and its associated organizations (alumni groups, fraternities and sororities, and the like) invest much time and effort into homecoming events, and the town as a whole makes quite the big deal about it. I do not recall my graduate school doing so, and my undergraduate school had no football team when I attended, so my direct involvement with homecomings ended when I left high school some fifteen years ago. I did not really understand the thing then--and I still do not, unsurprisingly. Like much else that many other people value, homecoming does not make sense to me.

In my present position, I find it to be an annoyance. It disrupts classes and the work of the school, making my job harder to do than would otherwise be the case. Students already have enough trouble focusing on the tasks they are assigned in my classes--the "I don't need this" phenomenon is prevalent among the students I teach--and to have what amounts to an endorsement of them being distracted from their work makes reaching them all the more difficult. I do not get paid more for the added work, so I think I am justified in resenting the exercise. And while I could well "join in the fun," my doing so would signal approval of the endeavor--and I do not approve of it. As I have said, I do not understand the allure, and I would be a fool to approve of what I do not understand. (And for those who would say I ought not to disapprove of it--it is a fair point. What I do understand about it is that it makes my job harder without offering me added remuneration. It is not a fair trade, and I understand that to be a bad thing, worth condemnation.)

I know that my point of view--get the work done first, dammit--will not be held by many; I know I am not persuasive on this point. I know the school and the town derive much money from the endeavor, and so I understand at least so much of why there is official approval of it. I do not think I see any of that money, though. And I still do not understand what about homecoming prompts the kind of attention paid it. (I can already hear the comments. "You think too much. Just enjoy it." What's to enjoy? I honestly do not understand what there is to enjoy about the matter, certainly not what there is to enjoy enough to do what is done here by as many as do it.) I am not anhedonic; there are things I enjoy, and there are things that make me happy. But none of them are on display at homecoming, and I find it hard to comprehend the whole damned thing.