This Is Why I Teach

I have a student who could be described as the resident jackass, and I mean this in the nicest of ways. He is the one who belts out, "Hey teach! How's it goin' today?" when I enter the room. He is also the kid who, in mid-lecture, will raise his hand eagerly and ask, "Um, are you a Pistons fan?" I lose my train of thought and just have to laugh it off with the rest of the class. He's the benign class clown; not cocky or rude, just a goof.

And then we have his writing. Good Lord! His first paper contained something close to, "he's beeting the crap out a the other dude," and "crap" was a revised version of "piss," which I told him to change on account of the word's tone. I believe this phrase was an attempt at a thesis and was buried near the bottom of the first paragraph, which ended at the top of page two. He knows he needs help and seemed genuinely interested in improving his writing. My suspicions were confirmed when he hung out after class and asked it I could check out his next paper's draft. Gladly, I pulled up a desk and we set to work.

Two hours later...this kid is a writing maniac!! He has three scraps of paper covered in notes next to his typed work which is now dripping in ink from revision. He would start phrasing an idea out loud, change the wording, change it again, upgrade the vocabulary and madly write it down while the idea was fresh. It was one of those moments all teachers live for; he had figured it out. He _got_ it, whatever it was that needed to be...well....gotten. It was like the light bulb went off and I was there to witness the new illumination! I joked that I would pack up and leave, as it seemed he didn't need me anymore and perhaps I could have him cover my classes since he had this new writing talent. What a great moment.

As we were wrapping it up, he got all boyishly weird on me and said thanks, while shuffling papers and mumbling. I could tell it was true gratitude, but he didn't want to be uncool in saying thanks. We ended with a high-five and his promise to resubmit the work next week. I left that room on cloud nine. I loved what I was doing. I love my job. After all, this is why I teach.