When I was a teacher, this was a bittersweet time of year. Spacious summer days were diminishing to the daily routine circumscribed by hourly school bells and small boxes in a big book of lesson plans reduced further to prescribed goals, but balanced by the excitement, love, and mystery generated by discovering unique teacher-student relationships and the prospect of a wide-open new year of traveling together in our learning.
I sensed this meeting of beginnings and endings in my husband’s energy as he bustled to complete house and garden projects before rejoining his faculty this past week.
I already miss Phillip’s constant easy presence and the time for spontaneous adventures we’ve enjoyed during his summer break, and sometimes I miss teaching…not the endless meetings or the mind-numbing impediments bureaucrats use to block the profession’s creativity and growth, but the intimacy of relationships, the give and take, the teaching and learning and surprises each year brought.
One of the lovely gifts derived from my many years of teaching has been the joy of watching my former students blossom into maturity, becoming parents, professionals, and compassionate adults. Many of them e-mail me, or let me know through social media how they’re doing and I’m always happy to hear from them.
Then, there’s Kate.
Kate has always been more than a student to me…she stole my heart even before she entered my classroom. At this time, I worked at a small school, grades K-8, and we had the luxury of watching students “grow up,” knowing their families, and forming strong teacher-student-parent relationships.
One day I was outside, monitoring the playground during the noon hour, and Kate arrived at my side, a curious, opinionated, funny, and bright 7-year-old. Some kismet brought us together. I was charmed, and although professional discretion was always honored between us, she somehow became one of those happy students who visited my classroom after school to tell me about her day, or share her ideas about books, or films. I can’t even remember now if I left that teaching position before she was actually my student, or if I served as her teacher when she began middle school.
At some point as she finished middle school, Kate began writing me e-mails, updating me about her learning and life as a student, and we kept up this correspondence through her high school and college years. Occasionally, we’d meet for lunch, or go on an adventure, and I’ll always remember her kindness in visiting my mother at the dialysis center. She’s always seemed a merry “old soul” to me.
Her wonderful parents invited us to Kate’s college graduation party, and I gave her a printed copy of our years of e-mails, chronicling her wonderful development into a mature young woman, one who has since moved to the East Coast and begun her professional career as an editor.
She was home this weekend, and I was deeply touched that she saved a day to visit me.
She is not my daughter, but over the years, Kate has taken up residence in that part of my heart I always reserved for the daughter I’d hoped to have.
It may be, as the proverb states, that when the student is ready, the right teacher will appear, but I count my blessings that one day on a school playground, something in my spirit and heart made me ready to welcome Kate into my life. She has taught me so very much, and I am grateful. The best relationships have this reciprocal flow of learning and teaching between those involved, I think.
So I send my blessing to all teachers as they begin a new school year, especially the dear souls who continue to live out this profession in my home state, where the past few years have brought denigration to their efforts. Budgets and programs are cut, classrooms are overcrowded, collective bargaining is destroyed, and salaries and benefits are precarious.
But you show up. You plan and hope and open the door every morning, welcoming the happy, the sad, the hungry, the lost, the eager and bright…and you supply what you are able, and more. You feed their minds, and their hearts, and their spirits, sometimes at the expense of your own.
I wish you a year of gentle peace, happy surprises, sustained energy, and compassionate relations…and I wish all of you students like Kate, who come to learn, but end up teaching you more about your own journey than you could have expected.
© Copyright of all visual and written materials on The Daily Round belongs solely to Catherine M. O’Meara, 2011-Present. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited, without the author’s written approval. No one is authorized to use Catherine O’Meara’s copyrighted material for material gain without the author’s engagement and written permission. All other visual, written, and linked materials are credited to their authors. Thank you, and gentle peace.
THE DAILY ROUND 
This is beautiful, Kitty. I wish the society we live in honored teachers the way it should, but I am so glad that your years teaching brought you joy – and Kate!
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Thank you, faeriechilde; your visiting and comments mean much to me: I am, truly, blessed in my friendships!
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Such happy smiles! How lovely. It is a wonderful gift if we have warm and wonderful memories to recall from time to time and friendships as well. So glad she came to visit you. Treasure these memories for they tell you about how much you touched someones life so deeply. I have always said for myself, let me touch at least one life and make a difference before I depart this world and I will feel complete. You have done that and it is special 🙂 Blessings….VK
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You are always so kind, VK; I believe you change lives every day…thank you!
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Kitty, what a wonderful tribute to teachers! Both of my parents were public school teachers and continued teaching adults long after retirement. Like you, they changed lives and had former students contact them regularly throughout the years. I tried to avoid the profession but here I am, back in the classroom again for another year 🙂
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Thank you, Lynn, and great blessings on your new year!
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I was moved by reading of your beautiful relationship with Kate. And I believe that the relationship between student and teacher can often be as strong and as meaningful, as the relationship between parent and teacher. I have known similar relationships, and afterwards… a sort of graduation from the teacher-student relationship, to a complete friendship… I have experienced that with my children as well. And it is really a friendship of the most rewarding kind. You closed with a beautiful blessing, and I join you in the hope, that despite all the difficulties, students and teachers will celebrate together the work of learning, and find much more positive, than the exterior difficulties we have to face from time to time.
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Thank you, Shimon. My husband began the “new year” today. He had mandatory meetings and etc. last week, but today the students return…I hope it will be a year of blessing and peace.
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Thank you for one more beautiful reflection, Kitty. I remember a conversation we had years ago, before I moved to Florida and you were still teaching. I had long before that time left teaching full time, and like you never missed the “mind numbing” meetings and committees. I missed the students. I remember telling you that unlike me, you’d changed many lives with your love of learning, your patience, your wit, your reverence of human beings. It’s so moving to see the photo of you and Kate. Must have been hard to say good bye when she left to go back to her new home and her job. When I think of students I’ve known — and many taught me quite a few things — I ofen wonder where and how they are. And there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t find them in my heart.
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Thank you, Matt. I know you blessed your students as well; don’t underestimate your gifts and power, dear one!
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Wow, what a beautiful post, on so many fronts. As the mother of two children who each had the fortune to connect with a special teacher, I think it’s worth noting what a gift those relationships endow on the entire family, not just the student. .
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Thank you so much. I agree; a loving relationship affects so many others, and the blessings from these teacher-student relationships surely ripple out and continue to inspire and bless others!
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My girls had several memorable teachers in elementary school (they are now in their 30″s).
I’ve put your post on my Facebook page for all my teacher friends. I hope that’s okay.
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Great, and thank you for supporting teachers, Amma!
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How wonderful it must have been to have you Catherine as a teacher! Kate sounds such a beautiful person and a delightful child. Your special bond warms my heart deeply. I saw this post a long while ago and I made a note to come by just to read this. And I got so much more from all the other posts that I had missed. It is amazing how we walk into each other’s lives and somehow touch each other’s lives in ways we could never have imagined. My life has just been that much blessed by you today. Hugs, Sharon
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Thank you, Sharon. I’m happy that Kate blessed my life and that our connection has now offered joy to you…there is so much to be grateful for regarding this ability to touch each other’s hearts…such a holy power. Peace to your day, Sharon.
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