Bitter Sweet Graduation
I've tweeted, I've FB statussed (not a verb, I know) and I've had lots of conversations about this. I'm going all digital maudlin, but once I get it out of my system, I'll be done. I'll move on. I promise. But for this post, I'm going to have to write about what it's like teaching for 25 years and saying good-bye to anywhere from 100 to (yesterday) 183 kids every year. Do the math. For me that's around 4000 students, many of whom I've taught at least once or twice not to mention being with some of them through extra-curricular activities and field trips. Imagine building a relationship with a number of these kids and then 4 or 5 years later, they walk across a stage, grab a diploma and off they go into the bright or dark or gray unknown. A few of them break away from their friends and family to thank you; and then you don't see most of them... ever again. And 25 years later, how many of them can you possibly remember? Yesterday