Kate’s back in school this week. She’s teaching third grade in East Oakland. Most of her kids were in her second-grade class a year ago. The first day, a student asked one of last year’s boys, a troubled and particularly disruptive kid, wasn’t there. “He’s at a different school in a special class that will try to help him calm down,” Kate said. One of the girls raised her hand and asked, “Is it anger-management class?”
Yesterday, the class played a game of tag at recess — the variation that starts out with one kid as “it,” and everyone runs from one side of the playground to the other, and whoever gets tagged joins the first person in catching the others. So finally, there were just two boys who hadn’t been tagged. They were getting ready for their next and probably final dash through their waiting classmates. One of them looked at the other and said, “Let’s do this.”
I had the same teacher for 2nd and 3rd grades. When I was in the third grade, they came out with a thing called New Math. To put it mildly, it threw me for life. Our birthdays are on the same date. And, I was in her class in the 2nd grade when we learned John Kennedy was killed. That combination, believe it or not, lead to a lifetime bond. Plus, her husband sold shoes at Sears where my mom bought all my shoes. We still get together every couple years for lunch. Usually on our birthday.