Graduation Revelations

Summer vacation has started in earnest, and I have had a lot of time over the past couple of days to mull over post-Graduation conversations.

There is no event at my school (or I suspect most schools) quite like graduation. For one thing, I think teachers experience the finality of graduation in a fairly unique way. Parents build toward graduation for quite some time, but they still have summer together before most of the goodbyes are said. The kids (as many many graduation/commencement addresses have mentioned) are experiencing a beginning as much as an end. Teachers (read me) on the other hand experience graduation as a distinct end. For another thing, everyone attends graduation.

Thus I got to meet (or really talk to) some parents for the first time. There were a number of parents present, who, though I had taught their children for 2 years, I had never talked to. Most thanked me briefly, or discussed their pleasure at meeting me finally, but some really wanted to talk to me. They wanted to tell me that mine was the only name they heard at home, or to say that I was one of a small number of teachers really challenging their child, or asking me not to leave the school.

While touching (I mean like keep doing the job for a long long time touching), I also worried a bit. I am glad that I seem to be making an impact (especially with these students who I will definitely miss), but I might be happier if my impact was a bit less singular.