Another Student

Today when I went to the doctor's offices to get my allergy shots, as I sat down in the waiting room, the two girls across from me were beaming at me.  I remember that said something as I entered the room and I can't remember what it was. Something had struck me funny and I remarked about it.  First I thought that the girls thought I was humorous, but then I heard one saying to the other, "Do you know who she is?"  So I asked, "Do you know me?"

"You were my teacher," the older girl answered.  I couldn't recognize who she was and had to ask.  She was Donna Kent, one of my first grade students.  As we talked, I found that she will be a college senior this fall. To me that's a real good reason for me not to recognize a student that I had in first grade.  There's a lot of change that happens between first grade and college senior.

Donna is an Architectural Engineering major. She is going to be doing an internship this summer in Cleveland. She will be doing work in analyzing problems that cause buildings to fail.  Her course of study will also help her to design structure for buildings.

We talked a little about memories from first grade.  I admitted that when I had been assigned to first grade, I thought that my pupils wouldn't remember me by the time they were out of school.  Both Donna and her sister said they remember first grade.  I said that maybe girls remember first grade better than boys do.  Then I turned to the drug company rep working on a laptop beside me while he waited to see one of the doctors, and asked him if he remembered his first grade teacher.  "Oh, yes!" he said emphatically, with a sheepish grin.  It made us think that it had been a bad experience for him but he said that wasn't necessarily so.  Finally he said, "Suffering helps you grow up.  That's what I tell my kids."  But he was grinning as he said it so he wasn't too upset by first grade.

Now I'm wondering if he was sheepish because he'd been listening to us, but really, he couldn't help listening. We were talking out loud right beside him.  I knew he had to hear every word. And now I know, he remembers his first grade teacher, he remembers her well.

How about you?  Do you remember your first grade teacher?

Posted by: NJ on 6/27/2005 12:02:29 PM , 6 comments