Monday night we received word one of the teachers at our school had resigned. She happens to be the most influential teacher in the upper grades and single-handedly started up the program my eldest has followed for the last four years. Rumors were flying, and the girls and I spent Monday night on our phones speculating the whys and the why-nots. Tuesday morning, we all stood on the school grounds in the forty-degree weather, gabbing and gossiping. To no avail. In the end, nothing changed. The teacher is still gone.
Being a part of a small private school is like living with all of your relatives and your husband's relatives and each one of their relatives in one house. Everyone thinks they know everyone else's business and feelings, and if they don't, well then, they make it up. Nothing is a secret because there is always a mole. Somehow, somewhere, the leak gets sprung and the secret oozes out into the masses, who then take it and run.
Most of the time I'm fired up about those leaks and the people who are running with it. I get caught up in the craziness and the paranoia. This time; however, I just felt nothing in the beginning. I got the news from a parent via phone. While she was stirred up, screaming and ranting, and pulling out her hair, I just listened and made noises. While some parents cried and ran around looking for other schools, I went out to lunch with a girlfriend.
It wasn't until last night that I began to feel anything. My body was tired and my eyes were sore and red, but mostly my heart was sad. I felt betrayed by this teacher. She had been off the previous week and since that had never occurred before, I texted her to make sure all was right. She responded and told me she would be back next week, adding the dreaded "LOL" at the end of her text. How dare she not tell me all was not well.
Upon closer examination, along with texting with another parent, I realized this is one of the problems. Our children's' teachers are not our friends, nor are they our employees.
Teachers work for our children. And my children were handling the announcement just fine. While they liked this teacher, respected her, and will miss her greatly they were intact. They knew what to do without her, how to carry on with what she had left them, and they were confident all would right itself out eventually. That what this teacher gave them. She molded them and taught them to carry on without her.
For that I am grateful.
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