One in the crowd

It happens regularly. Not systematically but often enough to make me right about it. You arrive at a school, get out of the car, do your job. You evaluate, advise, encourage or scold, and all the time children are there, looking at you. After a while, they’re just a crowd, faces one after the other, it becomes a routine, a habit.

But then, when you start thinking a kid is just another face in the crowd, it happens. Always. Something he does, something he says, or just the way he looks at you; and then you remember; you remember each of them is unique, each has his story.

It would be easy to forget, if it weren’t for the one in the crowd.