Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2004
Tavon, posted at 3:39 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I saw Tavon today. I didn't remember his name at first, but I remembered his face, as he walked silently down the hall, intent on making it to football practice on time. I was with a group of other teachers, in shorts and a t-shirt, and thought I could make it by without him noticing me or noticing that I had forgotten his name. I felt guilty, so I just walked ahead with my eyes turned to the front while I grappled with my memory bank for his first name. It didn't come, and I kept on walking. But, after he had passed, a friend called out his name."Hey, Tavon!"
I turned around, and he did too, and his eyes lit up and he grinned and said, "Hey, Mr. E!".
And I said "Hey man, how you doin', Tavon?".
"Real good. On my way to football practice."
"Cool. How was your summer? You do your summer reading?"
"I'm finishing it up. I'm up in that (Honors) joint now. Gotta read both that Color of Water and the Color Purple. Finished one, and I'll have the other one done by next week."
"Oh cool, you're taking (Honors)? Awesome, good for you." (I recommended him for it, told him he should give it a shot.)
"Alright. I'll see you later."
"Don't break your leg this year in football practice, okay?"
"(Laughing) Alright. See ya."
And he turned around, skipped off to practice, and I felt shitty as hell for pretending not to notice him at first because I had forgotten his name, and excited beyond belief about the upcoming school year. I love my job at times like these.
A waitress I used to work with is in the psychology department at some local university hospital. I hung out with her the other night, and she told me that my name had come up with one of her clients, who has kids who go to my school. I was immediately concerned, because it's not every day that a shrink tells you that your name came up in a session. It happened to my dad, a cop. That time, the shrink told my dad, against protocol, that a criminal that he had arrested years before had threatened to kill his entire family while he watched. Scary shit. It didn't happen, but he told us to be on the lookout. Anyhow, my thoughts immediately jumped to that. Like, maybe it was a parent who wanted to kill me because I had given her kid a bad grade.
Nope. She says that the parent, a single mom, had said that I was the only stable male influence in her son's life, and that she was greatful that her son was in my class, and that I was tough and that he needed that. I wanted more details, like who the kid was and what year I had him, but she refused to tell me more. Then, I felt that it was enough, that I should try to be that way with any kid I've got anyway, a positive role model, someone a parent would want influencing their kid's life.
Feeling very good about my job at this very moment, as you can tell.
The all-staff meeting today, which featured anonymous suggestions about what had been working and what had not been working, was like reality TV. Sometimes in a good way, sometimes not. The new principal actually said the words, "There's a new sherrif in town now."