Congratulations to the Class of 2008

This one is a bit personal.

Today was graduation day for my college. This is the first class that I have been with in the classroom since they started here. There were about 35-40 students who I had taught, about 3-5 more I worked with in my previous administration job, and a few more I know through other students.

A long time ago, a jackass who we all know said to me that he "hoped I found what I was looking for" in my life. He did it derisively, trying to act like I was some sort of shallow person or what not for whatever reason. Like most of his arguments, they didn't make sense and were far removed from reality. But that point always stuck with me....that I would find what I was looking for. Today isn't about that person, not in the slightest, but what it is about is confirmation that I am doing what I need to do. I figured that out a long time ago, but today proved it.

I care about these kids. I wrote letters of recommendation for a significant number of them. I nominated them for awards, and a good percentage of them, but not all, won the awards I put them up for. I helped get two of them into law school. They will go on to hopefully help others through their law practices (or, quite frankly, they might screw people over using law...tough to say in some of these cases).I helped four of them into social studies education masters programs and two of them into Teach for America. These people will go on to teach hundreds if not thousands of children over their careers. I also have one student who has already done two tours in Iraq and will likely redeploy in December. He came up to me after the ceremony and thanked me for all I had done for him. I should have thanked him.

I have had an impact, albeit a slight one, on these kids' lives. Hopefully I have made them better people, made them think about the world in which they live, or at the very least be more cognizant of their role in society. That is what I want to do.

Another person, who no one else on here knows, had a conversation with me over Christmas break. It was an awkward conversation because of things that he had done in the past...he was a valued teacher in our city and squandered his reputation and all that he worked for over his career in what I hope was an isolated moment of weakness. Regardless, you could tell that he missed the good parts of his former existence. As our conversation ended and I walked down the aisle a bit in Books a Million, he poked his head back around the corner and he said to me "Do me a favor. Don't be a teacher. Be an educator." I understood what he meant then, and I greatly understand it today. Get involved in the students' lives. Try to show them the broader picture, but whatever else you do, make sure you are there to help them. For all his problems, he was dead on.