Q train

Friday I didn't have to be at work until 9.

We had parent-teacher conferences Thursday night. Classes began an hour later than normal Friday morning to give us time to sleep in and recover. Then there was another round after school.

Of course when one has more time, one takes more time. Thus at 8:20 I found myself dashing from my apartment to the subway station.

Just as I reached the Q platform I saw the tail end of a train heading off towards Brooklyn. Q trains generally come ten minutes apart.

Well there goes that, I thought, I'm going to be late.

Then, a moment later, in a break with all known subway convention, another Q train pulled into the station. I got on the train and it whisked me off to Brooklyn just in time for my 9 a.m. class.

A couple of hours later a student came into my office. We had planned for him to come in so that we could discuss a test he had said, the night before, in front of his mom, I graded unfairly.

When he took his test out in my office, Mom not there, I looked and saw that he had left an entire section blank.

I smiled at him.

"You didn't mention this when Mom was around," I said.

He smiled sheepishly.

"Weeellll..." he said.

He and I developed some test taking strategies so that he can avoid not finishing tests in the future and then he went on his merry way.

Parent-teacher conferences have a way of making a teacher feel on guard, judged, and tested. Thursday night the kid who came into my office Friday made me feel downright guilty.

Who am I to go around grading all these tests so unfairly?, I had thought, only to find out the next morning that in fact the kid's grade was due to him not actually completing the questions.

The incident doesn't directly relate to the morning's Q train, but in a way it does.

Never assume.

That's how.