A 20-year old boy, who will remain nameless, joined my school two months ago to prepare himself for living in the United States for a year. I call him Sly Stone. Why? Well, for those of you old enough to remember the band “Sly and the Family Stone” would understand because he has a very high “afro.” Having a great sense of humor, he likes the name. Being a (mostly) liberal American, my first impression of him was “this is going to be interesting…”
Well, he said goodbye to me yesterday. After teaching him for two months I have concluded that he is going to be very successful. His outlook on life is very selfless, in fact he wants to be a teacher someday in Japan because, knowing what adolescents go through, their unique problems, etc., he wants to talk to them on their level and tell them that “everything is gonna be alright.”
Next week he is going to land in SanFrancisco with a fresh “perm” and I am sure that when his host family meets him at the airport they will be wondering…But after a day or two they will have no choice but to love THIS boy. I am already proud of him and he hasn’t done a thing yet…
If I ever regretted losing a student, he is the one. I hope we have helped him and I hope he comes back someday. All the best to you “Sly” and good luck from the boys at Smith’s Hashimoto!
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