I retired at 67, and
> wish I had retired at 65 because nearly half of every semester was
> becoming pure agony, but would "really" have liked to retire at 70 or 72.
> I was still a good teacher. I still enjoyed teaching. But it got to the
> point where no amount of paxil would see me through the last 7 weeks of
> the semester as the need to make out grades loomed larger and larger.
> Both I and the world would be better off if there were WPA-type work
> (make-work) for me, which involved teaching without grading.
I am wondering if job sharing would have worked in your case. Could another teacher have graded your papers for you or do you think that the nature of teaching would make this impossible?
One solution I see for disabled people who cannot - for various reasons - hold a full time job but may be able to work some given number of hours a week is to split the workload of one job with full benefits for both parties of course. One of the most viscous things going is part time work but no health care and benefits. (I don't think part timers pay into Social Security either which would make them ineligible for SSDI benefits in the event they became disabled)
Another possibility is the idea of the 30 hour workweek with 40 hour pay which is being tossed about by some in Europe as a way to provide more people with a job.
Marta