The other day...
during my 6th period class who, by the way, have begun their final projects for the class and have, for the first time since I've known them, entered that zen-like work state which is rarely achieved in any class and less often by classes like 6th period, I had a visitor come and stand quietly in the doorway, his long board in hand, waiting for a chance to talk to me. It makes sense that he would stand there quietly since, in the years that I have known him he has never done anything louder than quietly, not even when he was standing with his head poked through a life-size mural we drew of King Henry XIII's body reading the lines, "I'm going to kill you and marry another woman," would he speak above a monotone whisper. His face is one I know very well, being a former student of mine, that is except for the part beneath the scraggly beard he always used to wear.
But besides coming to show me his shocking lack of goat-y beard and his newly torn and dangling earlobe due to excessive gaging (which I warned him about on many occasions), he had just come to say hi. What I haven't told you about him yet is that, since I've known him, this student has been homeless. Not living on the streets, thank God, but squatting in various friends homes or staying with his pushy girlfriend, her child, and large family.
On the one hand I was so happy to see him standing in my doorway, skinny as ever but looking less like an old man and more like the kid that he still is. I was happy to hear that he broke up with his girlfriend and was looking for a job. But there was also a genuine lack of activity in his life since he graduated. I asked him what he had done since then and he told me "nothing". I believe him.
His visit left me thinking about many things. It made me think of the role I play in my students' lives and the impact I have for good or bad. It made me think of my purpose as a teacher, the reasons I pound out lesson after lesson about wars and presidents and change. But most of all it made me think of my family and the rest of my very extensive support system. I have so many people in my life, people who care about me, people who give up time and money and effort for me, people who think of me and pray for me, people who know about my woes and my triumphs, people who I can cry to or laugh with, people I love and who love me back. I have been so abundantly blessed in an area in which he is so desperately lacking.
But besides coming to show me his shocking lack of goat-y beard and his newly torn and dangling earlobe due to excessive gaging (which I warned him about on many occasions), he had just come to say hi. What I haven't told you about him yet is that, since I've known him, this student has been homeless. Not living on the streets, thank God, but squatting in various friends homes or staying with his pushy girlfriend, her child, and large family.
On the one hand I was so happy to see him standing in my doorway, skinny as ever but looking less like an old man and more like the kid that he still is. I was happy to hear that he broke up with his girlfriend and was looking for a job. But there was also a genuine lack of activity in his life since he graduated. I asked him what he had done since then and he told me "nothing". I believe him.
His visit left me thinking about many things. It made me think of the role I play in my students' lives and the impact I have for good or bad. It made me think of my purpose as a teacher, the reasons I pound out lesson after lesson about wars and presidents and change. But most of all it made me think of my family and the rest of my very extensive support system. I have so many people in my life, people who care about me, people who give up time and money and effort for me, people who think of me and pray for me, people who know about my woes and my triumphs, people who I can cry to or laugh with, people I love and who love me back. I have been so abundantly blessed in an area in which he is so desperately lacking.
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