Yesterday, I lost one of my freshmen. She returned to her home in New Orleans. She has been with us for the last three weeks. She is an intelligent, confident, and hardworking student, and I am sad to see her go. I told her that I was sorry that we were losing her, but glad that she was getting to go home. She retorted wistfully that she wasn't so glad because she loved it here and wanted to stay. This moment made me swell with pride for my students and the many ways that they had embraced her. She experienced little of the discomfort and pain of the "new student". If only my students would respond with the same kind of love for every new student.
This student's presence led to a very awkward moment for me. The day after she arrived we were discussing Lord of the Flies and I connected the breakdown of the boys' society with the craziness in New Orleans (which now looks like it wasn't as bad as the media reported it). I forgot she was in my class; I think my words were something like "The boys on the island are just like the people down in New Orleans who went crazy after the hurricane". A couple of students on the back row started giggling. It was my New Orleans student and the girl at her table. The rest of the class soon remembered her presence and also started laughing at my discomfiture. I admitted, "Well, this is awkward" and offered a very lame qualification of my remarks. I approached her after class to apologize if she had been offended by my remarks. She thought it was funny and claimed not to have cared. I hope she didn't.
Peace
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