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This is pretty much just a ramble of thoughts that came to me as I was reading over the news:

Pretty much everyone who has worked at a school long enough to see a graduation has experienced it. In the rows of familar faces there is one or more students who you could swear you've never seen before. Maybe it's just a radical haircut but more than likely it is a long term absentee.

Today reading an article on Japan Times (http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080821f4.html) made me think about all the students I've had just just never showed up. Some of them seemed angry at the world and some just seemed painfully shy or just somehow sad. I was never able to really learn much about those students lives.

During my first year I saw a student on the stairs that I'd never seen. No one had mentioned a new student and after several months I was sure I knew all the kids in my little school. He noticed my staring as I was struggling to place a name to the face or just the face to a memory. When I said hello he ran away.

Later in the day out of the blue a JTE told me that *kun said I was giving him a mean look that day. At first I was shocked. I didn't even know who *kun was. Who was I giving mean looks. Then it clicked. I told her what had happened. It seemed she understood as she looked relieved and then explained that he didn't come very often and that when he did come teachers all tried to treat him gently. He was one of the shy, troubled ones.

I only saw *kun a handful of times during the next few years until he graduated. He had teachers that wehn he came he would gravitate to and others I'm not sure he had contact with outside of greetings. He seemed like a nice boy and since no one was willing to tell me more about his situation I tried not to place any labels on him myself.
He didn't attend the regular graduation. Afterwards there was a small ceremony in the principal's office with only a few teachers, the principal and v-p and the boy's mother in attendance. The rest waited in the staff room and when *kun entered with diploma in hand everyone clapped and congratulated him.

The mother was overcome with emotion. Tears spilled down her down her face as she thanked everyone for taking an interest in her son. She was so proud.

Honestly it was one of the most moving things I've seen since becoming a teacher. I still don't quite understand. I'd always thought that the *kun was just another student slipping thru the cracks in the system. But no one else say it that way. They were doing the best the could in a hard situation.

We can't fix all the problems and many problems we'll never full understand. Sometimes the best thing we can do for is just make ourselves available and show an interest.