Journals

The other day I went by my old High School and visited with a literature teacher who taught me a decade ago. One of the young sisters in my hall said that she was retiring pretty soon and I wanted to say hi before then. She was the sole teacher I have any fond memories of - well apart from drama teacher I had a mild crush on.

So we talked for a while. She lamented the state of the city and how it affected the schooling. The budget is such that all the classes of subtance are being stripped away will only the barest of essentials being left behind (sports evidentally one of them.) She has struggled to keep her Advanced Studies Literature/History class in spite of this. I really want to be a supporter of public schools but situations like this reinforce that in many ways the system just isn't working anymore. (It also solidifies that we need to get Mina into a new school system ASAP. Montessori is getting more and more palatable.)

We also talked a bit about journals. I didn't remember initially but she has always had her class keep journals. I must've kept one but what I wrote about is beyond me. We talked about a guy she knew. He was involved in a bad situation where he accidentally shot his best friend with a gun. The very next day he came to school and this teacher didn't know quite how to react. Buying time, trying to figure out what to do, she asked the class to pull out their journals and write. This is what he wrote:

"Today I go to the funeral of my best friend whom I shot and killed."

That might just be one of the purest things I've heard in a long time.