Death and teaching...

I returned yesterday from attending the funeral for the son of a former co-worker and found myself really struggling with my feelings.  I didn't know her son personally and only worked with her for one year, but wanted to be there to support her and her family and the plethora of teachers from my school who attended the funeral as well.

I sat there in the pew at the church as this everyone grieved and all I could think about was how I would feel if the young man we were honoring was one of my former students.  His mother spoke of the impact his teachers made in his life and I looked down the pew at the ladies sitting next to me and it was a virtual living history of his school life, from his kindergarten teacher to his 8th grade teacher.  All there remembering him.  His mother remarked how, as a teacher herself, she feels that her students are her children - how they become one's children over the course of the school year and how very attached she becomes to them.  I sat there, humbled and moved to be a part of a profession where parents trust us with their children, trust us to teach them, but to love and care for them as well.  My students definitely become my "kids" over the course of the school year and I couldn't stand the thought of losing one of them.

I don't think this is something one ever considers when they think about becoming a teacher.  In the five years I've been teaching, I've seen so much more than I ever even considered or expected, both good and bad.  Students who suffer child abuse, parents dying or being put in prison, getting deported, moving away, drugs, alcohol, etc.  The flip side is watching those same students somehow manage to put all of that behind them and excel academically and socially - learning to rise above all their challenges or meet those challenges head on and succeed.  I know that some day I'll see my students graduate from 8th grade and high school and college, then hopefully move on and get married.  I guess, if I think about it, while I don't want to ever seen one pass away, I hope that I can be there to support their families when it happens.  What a humbling thought!