Dearest Student
The other day you expressed hurt over something I did. Not that you said you’re hurt. Your face was macho of course and you said the words in a manner that could be interpreted as jest angst or chutzpah.
It wasn’t chutzpah; I knew that. You’re not a disrespectful student. Though your actions are often disrespectful — disturbing to the average teacher in the average mainstream classroom setting — you are not. It’s your hurt that speaks the language of disrespect.
Crossing disrespect off my mental list I considered angst and jest. It was the latter I decided to respond to because it was the safer choice. (Later I berate myself for not addressing the angst it surely is…)
I do not know if I was truly guilty as you charged me but I was humble enough to apologize. I called you up after school to do so but you’d already moved onto the hurt from the class after mine. You were hurting from the accumulation of a day’s pain. An accumulation of years’ worth of pain. What I said matters little.
