I just finished teaching classes for the 2006-7 school year and, in the dust of a hectic two semesters of trying to make literature and writing meaningful for a diverse bunch of 11th graders, I wonder if I was effective. Why did one student think that the B+ he earned was not a good grade? Why didn’t he understand how far he’d come to go from the B to the higher grade? Why did another pupil not study harder after all the tips I gave her for essay writing?

There are lots of other questions, but I realize that my tendency to look at what didn’t work, first, is obscuring all the good stuff. Like the letters and e-mails from students who said “thank you” — and the scores of other kids who may never offer gratitude, yet will one day realize the value of what I and all their other teachers gave them. In his recent editorial for USA Today, Bruce Kluger offers his appreciation to his daughter’s instructor and one of his own teachers whose lessons have stayed with him for almost 40 years (http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/06/how_teachers_in.html).

And while you’re at it, would you please post a few notes enduring lessons some of your teachers gave you?

Here’s to a terrific Sunday for all you dad types out there. This year, Daddy Chic seems to have reached an all-time high. See the proof with this surprisingly large collection of celebrity fathers who look fairly comfortable in their real-life roles (http://omg.yahoo.com/hot-hollywood-dads/photos/91#id=0).

I’ve heard the next door neighbor engaging in some truly silly baby talk with his daughter. I’ve eavesdropped on an upstairs apartment conversation about what to make for dinner. But, in all the years of randomly picking up messages through a baby monitor, this one is, ahem, out of this world. For the last several days, a family in suburban Chicago has been getting video images from inside the space shuttle Atlantis (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070614/ap_on_fe_st/odd_baby_monitor_space). While they can still view their child on one channel of the Summer Infant brand video monitor, they’re getting an insider’s view of astronaut life. I wonder, are those space scientists picking up diaper changing tips on their end?

While it’d be nice to focus on the happy stuff for this month of Father’s Day, there are plenty of positives in learning the sources, symptoms, and treatments for male depression. In “Even Daddies Get the Blues,” my feature story for L.A. Parent (http://www.laparent.com - you can sign up there for the online version of the magazine or catch it around the Los Angeles area), I focus on how moms can recognize if their husbands are depressed and what they can do about it. Of course, dads who read this can learn a lot from the other fathers who explain their experiences with depression and the experts who enlighten this still murky disease which affects more men than guys will care to admit.

In this month’s new crop of Parenthood.com articles, you can read views on how dads raise sons and how they raise daughters (http://www.parenthood.com/articles.html?article_id=10257). The dad-son perspective is from me (so it’s got to be good, right?) and the dad-daughter view comes from the marvelously insightful Joe Kelley, who publishes the Dads & Daughters site (http://www.dadsanddaughters.org/).

You can read the article online or, if you’re in the New England area, the Boston Parents’ Paper. In the pieces, you’ll find the thoughts of not only me, but other dads and dad experts who discuss how gender affects the way they parent. Lots has changed since we were kids (boy sensitivity is more nurtured than in the past) — and some distinguishing factors are just timeless. Read the article and tell me what you think.