Eldanuumea

Today is a no-students, parent sort of day. the idea is that parents come to pick up report cards and talk to whichever teachers they wish.
As I have no homeroom and therefore no report cards to hand out, I've been twiddling my thumbs.

You see, I am such a wonderful teacher that no one has any complaints.

But, as I was walking through the halls just now, I saw a former student with his mom. Now this boy has my hubby for World Geography I, and I stopped them to say hi and let her know she could sign up to call Bob if she had any questions.

She burst into tears and told me she was withdrawing him from school.

This young man - let's call him G. - has an average in hubby's class of about 4, and I happen to know his grades were pretty much the same in math and English. I know this because G. is one of the brightest, most creative students I've ever had the pleasure to work with.....or TRY to work with. I've kept up with his progress - or lack of it, these days.

He is a junior.....one year from graduation. I asked him what he planned to do, and he told me he would look for a good job. In this economy?

I had G. for Accelerated English I and II, and during those two years he probably wrote one complete essay for me.......and it was good enough to publish in Atlantic or The New Yorker. G. was always doodling; his ambition was, and I suppose still is, to become an animator and make films. But how can he hope to accomplish such a dream without even a high school diploma?

I am just heartsick. Day after day, I try to wake up some desire for knowledge, some passion for SOMETHING in the bored, lax faces of apathetic teenagers who can't wait to get home and jump on their electronic equipment, or shoot at the neighborhood basketball court. So many days, I feel like I've spent my energy and enthusiasm for nothing.

But every once in a great while, you get someone like G. in your class, someone who is gifted and crammed with potential and who actually does have some passion, even if only for one thing - and after all your hard work trying to fan that flame, in the end, he throws it all away.

Perhaps I am mixing in my feelings about this with my disappointment over one of my daughters. She's beautiful, bright, gifted academically and musically, can make friends with anyone walking the planet.....but she dropped out of university, entered drug rehab, and has now moved to another state to live with someone she met on Facebook.

Gosh, this blog is getting to be such a downer!! People, I promise to find something bright to write about tomorrow.

But just now, I am sad about G. ......and my daughter.