My blogging has ground to a halt because a good friend (and good writer) whom I admire, after reading my blog, said to me, "Hey, you might want to go easy on describing every single kid you taught as brilliant and wonderful." So then I became paralyzed because all the stories I had lined up to tell were, in fact, all about kids I think are superb, brilliant, and wonderful.

- The one who wrote a chap book in 10th grade that was, and still is, one of the best things I've ever read, who I assumed was such an English jock she'd ask me to write her college recs, and she'd become a famous author, credit me. She had very light blonde hair and a tiny lisp and a fiery spark to her, tempered by an appealing blush of shyness; she had just the right combo of talent and personality to take the world by storm and, accepting her Pulitzer, mention me. But then lo and behold it turned out she was a big star in the science department. This girl's father had MS, and she'd spent her summers lobbying the state house in her gritty New England city, demanding handicapped access ramps be built downtown (which lobbying was successful), and she was studying to find a cure for her dad, and etc. I was furious!

- The one who was very tall in 10th grade, and who was incessantly looking right at me during class, smiling all the time, nodding, paying extra intense and careful attention, which would have felt like brown nosing except he so patently wasn't - he so clearly loved to TRY - that I just knew he was adored all over campus. He grew to a great height in the next two years. I don't think he was a terrific athlete at all, but he played varsity basketball - there was his height of course, but also, if you had a team, you would want this kid on it, that's how much his character would infect everyone. It wasn't charisma exactly that he exuded. It was more Buddha like. Compassionate, accepting, and furiously upbeat. In 10th grade in my class, he worked his way to the highest grade, as he did again in a Senior elective, but if anyone's actually getting sick of my praising my students, you'll be happy to know this guy was NOT the best basketball player at Andover and was NOT the most brilliant kid in my classes; other kids were better writers, plenty smarter. But ha ha, THIS young man was accepted to Harvard where he made the varsity basketball team as a walk on.

- Yes there are kids I've taught that I didn't like, at least while I taught them. Most of them, sooner or later, grew into their brave and selfless best. Some of them didn't - maybe their parents hovered and made excuses for them so they always had an inflated opinion of themselves, or they were so talented they got away with their arrogance, or whatever. Who wants to read about them? To be so perfectly honest, I can't remember them all that well.