Kindred Spirits

My granddaughter's classroom

Yesterday I got an email from a good friend who had a compliment for me about my new book on lessons learned as a teacher of elementary children. She said she recognized three people in my book, even though there were no names attached, and I began to think about some other experiences we shared. We taught together for at least twenty years (I think) and probably a third of all the children I taught had also been in her class when they were younger. My memories made me laugh, so I thought perhaps they'd make my readers laugh as well.

I would have to say that the great majority of children I've taught were delightful most of the time. However, my friend and I have indelible memories of a child she taught one year and I had the next year. We dealt with the child's unbelievable background, incredible drama, and unpleasant surprises each and every day. There was daily fighting, twenty-seven other unhappy children who watched this child go into meltdown mode, and tears. (Those would be mine!)

Of course I never observed my friend's class when she had this child, and barely knew her troubles during that time. Professional teachers seldom discuss a child in the teachers' room on breaks, but as I questioned my friend about this child during the year and hollered for help, the pieces came together. Now, years later, experiences still fresh in our memories, we might share a look when we know we're thinking of this child. Hmmm, not really funny...let's move on!

My friend and I tended to dress similarly, and even showed up at school one day in exactly the same blue and white print dresses. I have a picture somewhere. During Christmas, we wore jolly sweatshirts, and and while we didn't have any that truly matched, our holiday spirits did, and we got into the fun of it. During the years we wore costumes for Halloween, everyone could count on us to participate; "pumpkin head" and "curler babe."

One morning after both our husbands retired, we would tiptoe around in the dark mornings in our homes so as not to awaken them. After dressing quietly and slipping out to come to school, we sat in the teachers' room enjoying a moment before heading to our classes. I can't remember which of us noticed first, but the conversation went something like this: "Uh oh, you have something on the front of your shirt. It looks like...it is! The tag! Your shirt is on wrong side out!"
Then as we peered at each other, we dissolved into laughter."Your shirt is wrong side out too!" Yep, dressing in the dark had its downside. Our superintendent came to school with two different shoes on shortly after that, and we felt better.

We're enjoying retirement now, but really miss those days. Now we can laugh about some of them.