Another reason why I love teaching

We had our first class discussion of Too Late to Die Young Monday. After class, one of my students stuck around to say something to me.

"I wish I'd had this class two years ago," the student said.

"Why?"

"Because I had a lab partner in high school who had a progressive muscular condition and was in a wheelchair. I wasn't really sure what to do. I mean, I was nice! But I didn't know how to be friends. My friends went skateboarding, and I couldn't say to this guy, 'Hey! Come skate with us!' So I didn't really reach out." The student continued to share a sense of uncertainty--what's the right way to help someone be part of a community? Was I too careful? Did I not say or do the right things? What's the way not to make someone feel like an "other"?

"You know," I said, "you're asking all the right questions, and that's really important."

The student gave me a look. "I've always been asking those questions," s/he said. "But now I'm getting the answers."