Our Referral- Part 2-David's story

Here is my side of the referral story. It must have been about 10:35am and I had just let the class out for recess after a not-so-productive morning. The norm, rather than the exception these days. I had about 5 students still in class for not turning in their homework. How could they not do their homework!?! We've been at this for over 2 months now, they should know the routines!

The phone rings in my class for 2 reasons: 1) the secretary is informing me that a student is going home early (though never THIS early!) 2)another teacher is reminding me of something that I don't look forward to ("we're having a meeting..." "you're on duty this week..." "one of your students was caught doing this or that outside..."). And while I talk to Lisa a lot on the phone, it's never from THIS phone. So I was stunned even by that. But immediately, as if she were a...MIDWIFE coming out to the waiting room at a...BIRTHING CENTER, she said "we have a girl!" And with my most profound and eliquent choice of words I said, "uhh...are you serious?"

But in that split-second moment, I really began to understand the path that we were on, and that soon I would be a father. Whatever makes a gut so sensitive to things like worry, nervousness, fear, or love, now had a whole new way of relating to the rest of the body. Instead of turning inward, this warmth inside my gut now inspired action. I knew there was a little girl out there and now I felt like I had to do something for her. But being 1,000s of miles away and in the middle of a work-day, my options were limited. So I looked around the room and suddenly I felt a whole new level of sympathy or empathy or caring for those 5 or so students that were frustrating me before Lisa called. I felt for them, sitting at their desks, bored, instead of playing outside. Then recess was over and we went outside and picked up the rest of the students. I was smiley and calmed, and it made my students curious about this change.

It was still an hour before lunch (when I could actually see a picture of this little baby girl!) Like Lisa, I'm sure my students didn't learn anything from me in that time. I wanted to just share the news, but 20 2nd graders wasn't the first audience I wanted to open up to about this. So this became the first and only time that we've ever gotten to lunch early! I rushed back to my classroom and finally saw her wonderful face. Her bright eyes and cute little ears. Yeah. I look at that picture a lot.