Endings, and a gratuitous gratuity

The Internet lesson(s) were great fun and pretty successful. My students especially loved Google images and maps. I had them find their homes on a map of Seminole, and then asked them to click the satellite button to see a real picture. You should have heard the ooohs.

So, yeah, the last two days were everything I expected them to be: sad, fun, too fast. I didn’t, however, expect a certain something to happen. One of my student’s last day was yesterday. She had to leave in the middle of the class, and I was busy helping a group of students when she left. She told me she left something for me on my desk and I glanced over to see she had written me a note on an index card. I didn’t have time to read it until everyone was gone. On it she’d written a simple thank you, but under it she left gratitude of a more capitalist nature. Yep, she’d hidden a $50 bill underneath the note.

It was a really sweet gesture, but I knew instantly that I couldn’t keep it. I wanted to find her and return it, but she and her husband were leaving for a two-month stint in Mexico that day. I took it to my boss, who immediately informed me that I should keep it. “Ben, it’s a gift from God! Don’t you realize a gift from God when you see it?” She’s like that—one of those people who feels that every minute occurrence of everyday is a message from above. She even told me that God helped her pick out her car. Apparently, God doesn’t have the best taste.

And, apparently, God did not write the Code of Ethics for Texas Educators, which plainly states that one cannot take money from students. I—in the kindest way I could—informed her that it was, um, against the law to keep it. I didn’t add in how it was kind of morally icky too. Again her God befuddles me—not one to turn down a sweaty wad of cash. Finally she agreed to take it as a donation for the school, and I didn’t have to feel guilty or insult the woman by returning her gift.

But all in all, this experience has been terrific. I’m really sad that it is over.