Goodbye and God Bless You

Last week I had to say goodbye to Belinda. It was a double whamming because she was such a sweet, hard-working student and because I only found out twenty-four hours before she left. She transferred to another international school in Hong Kong.

She is the third student of mine that has transferred since the beginning of the year. Because our school has a sizable waiting list, the vacancies are quickly filled.

I don’t think that the rate of student turnover here is any greater than it was back in the suburbs of Chicago where I was teaching in a public school. But the recent departure of my students here has stopped me in my tracks in a way that I didn’t experience back in Chicago.

I guess that’s because students' presence here is an explicit choice and not just a by-product of geography. When my students here leave, it’s not because mom or dad got transferred, it’s because they are making a conscious decision not to be here.
Each departure has made me ask “Wow, I wonder what she wanted in her middle school experience that she felt she wasn’t getting? Was it academic? Social? Is there a program we don’t offer, that they feel is essential to the middle school experience?”

I realize that there is a lot going on at this school that I don’t have a hand in. I also realized that these students had a three, five, eight-year history with our school before I ever stepped off the plane. None-the-less, each departure has caused me to ask what I could have done differently that may have caused them to stay. It has caused me to look at the rest of students and wonder which –if any- of them is also on the fence? What is it that I’m doing today in the halls and in the classroom that will cause them to want to come back each day?

The whole experience has kind of caused a seismic shift in the way I look at my students.

Teaching in a public school –to be honest- I never really thought much about it. Students pretty much just showed up every week. Here in the world of international schools, the administration and the teachers have to work every day to convince parents that they should send their students and their educational dollars here.
It’s a new mindset for me. I am still getting used to it.

Hey, Belinda, good luck in your new school. I hope it goes well for you. You are sorely missed.

-Jack

picture: students from a neighboring international school