A good feeling

We had an outside project to repair an antenna at our school football field. Instead of giving the project to the maintenance department, I thought it would be good experience to let all the students help in the repair which involved a field weld with the portable machine.

We completed the work and all the students started walking back to the class. One of the students who I had last year slowed down and began walking with me. This student has a speech problem (stutters) and he started to talk to me. It took him a while to convey his thoughts but what he said was that he was going to drop out of school but did not because he liked my class so much. His background is typical for a lot of my students--no dad and no money in the family.

Last year, six of my students dropped out of school before January. They drop out for a variety of reasons. It makes me feel good to think that in some small way, one student at a time, I am making a difference.

The kid made my day.