When I was a teacher, I’d often have parents or students reach out to me for the work that they would need to make up when they went on a family vacation during school. A lot of the time, these were once in a lifetime types of vacation. Other times, it was just what the family did. While it ideal for students to be in class every day, it is also important for them to experience the world, even if it is going to Disneyland for the third time that year.

I used to give them a list of things to do when I was a younger teacher. After a bit, I realized that 95% of the time they didn’t get done or, if they were done, they were done poorly. I also realized that, if they were worried about getting work done, they weren’t able to fully experience the life and adventure (hopefully good) that was going on around them.

I started telling them (in a joking way) that my homework was to bring me something from their trip that didn’t cost anything, like a stick or a rock or a cool picture that they took while they were there. We would figure out what they needed to do when they came back. I was lucky to teach English, so most of my curriculum in high school was review and reteach the skills they already had with more difficult texts, especially when I had senior classes. If I was teaching another subject, I might not have been able to do this. You miss a week of math and you’ve missed instruction on variable and, when you return, math has turned into a strange, alien language. You miss a week of science and you don’t know that the earth is round. That type of thing.

A few students would do my “homework” and bring me a rock or show me a picture. It gave the student and I a cool way to connect. It also gave them practice “presenting” to an authority figure because I’d have them tell me why they chose what they chose to bring (ooooh! citing evidence! explaining the evidence! ooooh!). It was fun and I never expected anything from them.

One student, however, did something that broke my brain. He was a senior in my IB English class. If you don’t know anything about IB, it is an intense program that focuses on critical thinking, global awareness, and academic curiosity. It is amazing and also incredibly stressful. This young man was a math/science guy; he didn’t really like my class. He was never rude about it– in fact, he worked hard and did well. It wasn’t me that he disliked, just the subject matter.

His family was going on a trip to Europe, visiting a variety of places and doing touristy things. When he asked me for his work for the week, I laughed and gave him my “homework” assignment. I emphasized to him, though, that he should try to relax and enjoy the world as much as possible. It was at a point in the year where I was truly worried about my IB students. They had so many hardcore assignments due. They were so stressed.

When he came back, he walked up to me and gave me a stick. A stick! I laughed and thanked him for it. I had never had anyone bring me a stick. It was a cool looking stick. I will add a picture if I can remember where I put it. I know I have it somewhere. The stick was a strange and cool surprise. The best souvenir, though, is the story of how he got it.

He and his family were waiting to get into the Acropolis in Greece. He saw this stick behind a fenced in area (it may have just been rails and not a full on fence). When he saw it, he said that he knew that he had to get it for me because it was such a cool stick. This child (young man, actually– he was 17 at the time) climbed through or over or around the fence, went into an area that he wasn’t supposed to, and grabbed this stick for me. I don’t know if there were people around or if it was isolated; I was a little bit afraid to ask.

This is not a young person known for taking risks like this (at least as far as I knew). He was quiet and very much a rule follower in class. He was definitely not the one who I thought would risk getting in trouble in order to get a cool stick. To be honest, I really didn’t think that I was one of the teachers that he really connected with. I loved the heck out of him as a human being, though.

Greece was not the last stop on their trip, so he wrapped it up and put it somewhere safe in his suitcase. This stick has traveled more of the world than I have.

The best thing about it is that he brought it to me and told his story on a day when I was ready to give everything up. My last years of being a teacher were so difficult for me. I was starting to feel like I wasn’t helping anyone, that I was fighting a losing battle, that I couldn’t reach students anymore. I was able to go forward for a bit more.

Sometimes I really miss teaching. I miss learning about students and their lives. I miss watching a student “get” it. Most of all, I miss those days when we would get to laughing so hard that I would start crying and couldn’t breathe. I haven’t found a place where I can do that yet.

Maybe I will use this blog to tell those stories– the ones that made me laugh and the ones that made me cry. I’m going to need to think about that.