The Student Teacher Blues by Robert Lubrican

of disciplinary actions taken. Attendance was recorded, as well as participation in extracurricular activities. She was astonished to see there was a page with notes on potential problems at home. The one she was looking at, for a girl named Haley Simpson, had a note that said Haley's mother was single, worked nights and wasn't there to supervise Haley's homework. She opened another one, for a boy named Theodore Johnson. He had a peculiar mixture of very high and very low grades. His standardized test scores suggested he was very intelligent. The notes section said that he was the primary caregiver for a younger brother and sister, and that his parents had been arrested multiple times for drug violations. By the sixth one she knew that these kids were the ones that she and her friends in high school would have labeled "losers." She couldn't call them that now, of course. "Mr. Hawkins, this is going to be a tough crowd," she said. "Bob," he responded. "What?" "You can call me Bob, now." He smiled. She was flustered again instantly. "I can't do that!" she blurted. "Why not?" he asked, still smiling. "I just don't think I can do that. I mean it just seems so wrong. You've always been Mr. Hawkins," she said weakly. "Maybe Mr. 'H'...but never Bob!" "You keep thinking of me as your teacher," said Bob. "I get that, because it's easy for me to think of you as my student. I need to get over that. The fact is that you've become much more mature in your outlook on life. And, while I am,