As usual in the last few days before Christmas break, there was great exhilaration at school yesterday. Teaching and learning was replaced by laughing and hugging. In the classrooms, in the halls, in the library, and on the playground there was little else but pure enthusiasm. The holidays have definitely begun. It’s a somewhat frustrating time for we teachers, especially if we’re of the controlling type. If you like to run an efficient, well-managed classroom where great lists of goals are reached and checked off each day, you would not enjoy these last few days before vacation. For the most part, educational goals at my school were in complete tatters yesterday. It could be, though, that other worthy goals were reached by all of us, students and teachers alike. Perhaps we found a little more elation for our lives, a little more joy to carry with us into the days ahead. Maybe instead of learning how to be better students and teachers, we learned something more about how to be people of high spirits and delight. We might deserve a higher grade for yesterday than we realize.