The Good Old Days

Sometimes working with teenagers is a thankless job. Often working with at-promise girls is a thankless job... especially when they think the only things you do are coordinate and administer testing, and act as a disciplinarian...

It was Friday morning, and I accompanied a dozen or so students on a field trip to see the play 12 Angry Men. It's difficult to enjoy a production when I am focused on where my students are and what they are up to. But their behavior was pretty on target, as they were likely feeling lucky to be out of class for the day. Midway through the show, the actors froze, and the lights went down. It was intermission which meant my students would capitalize on the chance to get up and move. Several of them made a mad dash for the restroom, and as we have a tight supervision policy, I quickly followed behind them. The girls' room was completely overcrowded with students elementary up through high school. Lines resembled concert or football game restroom lines, and I stationed myself outside the door to keep track of all my students. I watched the various students around the lobby, and fixed a gaze toward the front door to be sure none of my students got sneaky. Suddenly, from across the room I hear, "Dr. Kemp! Dr. Kemp!" Flying down the aisles toward the lobby came three students, obviously younger than mine. They flung themselves at me, hugging me. I looked down at their faces and noticed they were former students from my elementary school days. I asked them who they were there with, to which they were delighted to announce, "We're in middle school now!" We exchanged a few words and then they ran off.

When I returned to our seats with my current students, one of them said, "You should have seen how excited those kids were when they realized they saw you. They pointed at you and went running."

I told them those kids were my students at my last school,"At every other school I've worked, the kids actually liked me!" They laughed.

I miss those days.