Why I Teach, Part 2

Adam just got home and asked how my first day was. After mumbling something about how I should have kept my posh job as the school's Literacy Coach (b/c teaching is so much damn work in comparison!), I remembered my best moment from the day, so I thought I'd share.

In my AP class, we had an awkward amount of minutes before the bell, so I had the students go around and introduce themselves and say something that we didn't already know about them. These honors kids have been traveling together for four years now and they know each other well. They know whose parents have died, who immigrated from where and when, who everyone has dated, and so on.

Of course, everyone moaned and sucked their teeth at me, but I still made them do it. Most said really banal stuff, like "I'm addicted to texting" (which is a veritable problem that I will have to post on later) and then we got to one student, and he blew us away.

Let me preface this by saying that this one student is known for rambling a lot in class about random topics. He is super skinny and tall. He draws science-fiction-y/fantasy-esque characters all over his notebook and is an amazing artist. He does not wear uber fashionable clothes; he just comes as he is.

So it's his turn. He starts to ramble. Everyone is trying to get him to cut to the chase and spit it out when he says, "I used to have cancer."

At first we're all incredulous. "Shut up," "No you didn't," "That's not funny," the kids (and I) said. He stood firm. He had some kind of nasal carcen...blahblahblah. He said he had to memorize the name of it b/c it was so long and hard to pronounce. It was a tumor behind the nasal plate in his skull. He had to do chemo and radiation, lost his long dreads (he has short natural hair now) and half his body weight. The class was stunned. Then someone clapped and the whole class burst into applause. It was an intense moment. He smiled shyly, accepting the applause.

As I thanked him for being so candid, I reminded him: "You have one heck of a college essay to write..."

DAMN.