Denouement

Many of you may have heard me speak about Dr. Ken Schiff, one of our English Department faculty members and parent of a young man on the spectrum  who was very much involved in envisioning our Asperger Initiative at Mercyhurst and the Foundations Program.  I had a chat  with  Ken on Thursday night  as he  always has a fresh and interesting take on the situations we are experiencing with our "growing pains."  And he makes me laugh, which was something I really needed !!!                                                

While talking to him I remembered that in my college  English classes many years ago I learned about plot development.  First there is rising action, then climax, then falling action, then denouement.  This schematic very much sums up last week. 

Monday through Thursday were very rough.  The students were agitated, the staff frustrated, and problems abounded.  After a lot of phone calls (be thankful if you DIDN'T hear from me!!), several behavior contracts, many staff meetings, we achieved an "uneasy peace" on Friday.  Of course, that was after three fire alarms went off in Warde Hall and jangled everyone's nerves!!! 

I'm thinking we have reached "denouement"  which  translated from French means "untying" but in literary terms is  the outcome or result of a complex situation or sequence of events.  Everyone is quieter and reflective this weekend.  We have six more days to go, but we are untying ourselves and settling.  Hopefully we have resolved our complex problems--at least for a while.

My phone could ring at any minute.