A face from the past

     I have had many memorable students over the years. Few as memorable as Victoria, who I taught directly before and during the Covid remote year, during her 6th and 7th grade years. A high academic striver and a natural leader, she was honored at the end of her 8th grade year as Student of the Year. Watching the surge, the eruption of emotion on her face as she realized she had achieved this signal honor still brings a shiver up my spine and goosebumps to my arms. It is my enduring metaphor for overarching success, the epiphany of unexpected recognition and success.

    This is the year she graduated high school. 

    As a junior high teacher, I follow my students' progress as long as they are still on my campus. As they move from my ESL classroom to the general education setting, I check in with their teachers, listen to the daily announcements for success, send them postcards or emails to celebrate signal accomplishments. Athlete of the week. National Junior Honor Society induction. Student Government Association officers. Things like that. I have always operated on the principle that as long as they are at McMeans Junior High School, they are part of Barber's Crew.

    But when they leave for high school, I lose contact with them. Sometimes I see former students at the grocery store, or sometimes they come back with younger siblings registering at the beginning of the year. I have gotten a handful of letters and emails through the years during Teacher Appreciation Week, and those always inspire and move me.

    But this time I heard indirectly of Victoria through another teacher, a friend of mine who watches social media closely. Last week she sent me a screenshot shared from Facebook. One of the high schools flooded its Facebook page with candid shots of graduation. 

    Her message, under the picture of beaming graduates, was "Our girls graduated! I saw this on Katy ISD Facebook page."

    In the group shot were Victoria and Constanza, best friends in our class and still best friends today. They have grown so much in the years since they sat in my class and tried to figure out irregular past participles in 7th grade, but I recognized them both immediately.

    And there was something else about the picture...

    I enlarged the shot.....

    They were each wearing, along with the crimson robes of Cinco Ranch High School, a white satin stole with an embossed design:

White satin honor stoles, gold cords, and all.

    Not only did these girls catch up to their American peers between 6th grade and 12th by dint of hard work and natural ability, but they surpassed the norm to graduate with honors in one of the most competitive school districts in Texas.

    All of my students have to overcome adversity of some sort. In addition to the language barrier, they struggle with culture shock and homesickness at the very least. They face significant obstacles to taking their place in American society, much less the high achievement some experienced at home. 

    Congratulations to my most astonishing students, who have achieved beyond expectations! 

    "The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it." -Moliere