My Student My Friend

This past Sunday was the last day of religious school. I've worked with the same class for two years and have grown rather close to the students. But on Sunday morning I almost started crying in front of the class.

I was telling my students that I've really enjoyed working with them. I explained that during my first year of teaching I had a particularly good class. During the second year one day I asked the principal if he thought that I'd ever have a class that I'd bond with as well as the class I had the previous year. He responded, only if you let it happen. This past Sunday I told my students that it had happened.

Then it hit me. As I looked out over the kids who I have grown to love over the last two years, I couldn't help but see one of the students who was in my first class. His name was George Roffman. He and I were particularly close. Sometimes, as a sixth grader, George was a bit clingy. But he was one of the funniest and most intelligent students with whom I ever worked. He and I became friends. Occasionally, we'd have lunch and/or play basketball. His parents invited me over to their home on more than a few occasions. George and I kept in touch for years after he was my student. I moved away the year that George started high school. But we wrote letters and then emailed. When George was 20 years old, a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis, he became sick. People did not know what it was at first, but it was brain cancer. The cancer could not be cured and he died several days after being diagnosed. I think of George occasionally and miss him and his laugh.

Well Sunday as I was telling my students how much I enjoyed teaching them, all of the sudden I thought of George and I had a horrible thought. George is not the only person to die young. I obviously didn't say anything to my students about George. But I did tell them that I hope they will take advantage of every day of life. I could feel the tears coming. Fortunately the tears never got there because what would I have said to a group of fifth graders?

I can only hope that the students who I've taught the last two years recognize the opportunities that they will encounter every day.