Sometimes I am the teacher. Sometimes the student.
This morning I had a class of 7th-graders in the computer lab practicing speech with a new ESL program. I spread the students out to create quiet zones between each computer.
Walking around the class and monitoring progress, I was shocked to find a phone propped up by one of my students with Facetime opened on it.
Shocked because Facetiming in school is particularly forbidden. Shocked because this student is a rule-follower; I would have never imagined she would violate tech rules before seeing her...well, violate tech rules.
Dumbfounded, I asked her who was on Facetime and why.
Without missing a beat, she twisted in her chair and pointed to the back of the room. By dint of the social distancing, one girl was sitting, isolated, all by herself in the back. "I didn't want her to feel all lonely, so I Facetimed her so we can see each other."
No speech. Just a camera open so that two masked girls could smile at each other as they worked.
Feeling a lump the size of a plum in my throat, I nodded assent and told her she could Facetime "just this once."
This year, of all years, the kids are painfully aware of the isolation and loneliness caused by Covid. They sit apart in class, at lunch, on the bus.
At the best of times, middle schoolers deal with chronic isolation. But this is not the best of times....
I slipped back to hide behind my computer; it would not do for a kid to see me squeezing hot tears from the corners of my eyes. Might ruin my reputation.
I am so thankful that sometimes a 12-year-old teaches me a lesson. About friendship, about belonging, about community.
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