Graduation!

As the last few days of school tick by one of the final jobs of the year was to go to graduation. Being from England this is something that I am not used to as we don't graduate from High School. As I watched some of my students walk across the stage I wonder what they are thinking, where they will go, and do they really realise what this means? Many of my students have already experienced aspects of life I will never experience. Many of them have overcome trials I can't even begin to comprehend. But as they walk across that stage they are really setting off on their own. There is no teacher who will call home to ask why they aren't in class or they are failing if they don't do the work. There are no second chances when you fail and need to retake that course again. They are out in a world where they will fail college classes and lose their money, get fired from that job and run out of money when they can't get another. The strange thing is I will never know there successes or their failures, I really am sending them off. If I am lucky they will remember me as that teacher that taught them some Math and hopefully they also know I cared. I pray that they do well and that in some way I have been a positive aspect in their life.