From the Editor: School’s Out

Abstract

The title of this editorial is from the work of the great philosopher Alice Cooper who penned a song of the same name in 1972 (look it up, kids – it was on vinyl!). While for many it is spring that represents new life blooming, for those involved in higher education, spring simply mocks us. As the trees and flowers blossom, birds return from their migration to warmer latitudes, faculty and students are locked in an epic struggle to somehow cover all the material promised in one of the great works of fiction, the syllabus. The faculty hope that some amount of what they have helped students discover sticks through the summer and beyond. Those who teach introductory courses like yours truly live in dread of the future comment from a colleague that the students you taught the semester before say that they have “never heard of” some concept into which you poured your heart and soul to get across its importance, even beauty. Students are trying to figure out if it is possible to learn an entire semester of geology in the weekend before the final (spoiler alert—it is not).