The Chelsey Effect

It's graduation time, which means lots of parties. Since I teach all the seniors (and am a pretty cool guy besides), I tend to get a lot of invitations. Today, for example, I graced no less than 10 separate grad parties with my presence -- between 10 and 45 minutes each, depending on how my schedule was going. The most memorable thing today happened at a party for a girl I'll call Chelsey. She and I always got along well, but never talked much beyond what we needed to in class for assignments and such. I never thought of her as one of my "star" pupils, or one I was particularly close to. In fact, I was a little surprised that she invited me to her graduation party -- although every year I get invitations that surprise me, and don't get ones from some kids I expect them from. I met Chelsey's parents for the first time (I think) and her mom said that she had heard a lot about me from Chelsey. I was kind of taken aback by that. In talking with Chelsey today, I found out that she plans to go to college to become a teacher at the elementary level. I told her I respected that and couldn't personally deal with young kids in that setting. She told me that she didn't think she could deal with older (high school) kids, and complemented me on how good I was at it, and how much she was going to miss me next year.

My purpose in writing this all out is not to blow my own horn (well, maybe a little), but it just really struck me that given the position I'm in, I can really have a huge effect on kids -- and sometimes not even know it. It seems like every year, I get this same kind of phenomenon: kids will tell me how much they liked my class, and/or parents will say how much their son or daughter has liked my class/me and how they talk about it a lot. It's pretty humbling.