The topic again surfaced this week at dinner.
Miss B.
Once a central part of our pandemic household, Miss B has disappeared.
“I wonder where she went?” our 3 year-old Sihasin asked
between bites of pasta.
A little background:
It was a few months into the pandemic and Sihasin voiced
that she wanted to go to school just like everyone else. She was feeling left
out, seeing her siblings logging in each day to a world of learning while she
was left behind. So Nizhoni, our oldest devised a plan. On times when she was
not in school, she would sneak upstairs, put on a disguise, and become Miss B, personalized
teacher for Sihasin. Let me explain that “disguise” was simply putting on a hat
and sunglasses. I asked Nizhoni if she used a different voice as teacher, and
she gave me a look. “Dad, that really isn’t necessary. I use my normal voice
and I still don’t think she knows it is me.” (First blog on Miss
B, September 2020).
Miss B, the teacher of all things a toddler could want to
learn, was born. She began to expand her teaching her repertoire. Dance
parties, guest teachers, arts and crafts projects. It was worthy of me giving a
Miss B update in March 2021.
Shortly after that piece, Sihasin graduated to her own
school at the UNM Children’s Campus. She was beyond elated to wear a backpack
and have a school of her own.
Sadly, the requests for Miss B receded.
What is a teacher to do without a class to teach?
Where does a teacher find fulfillment when not in front of students?
We wondered these same things. Then, while riding in the car
one day, the answer came in a surprising fashion. Miss B had simply adapted
like the rest of us pandemic-beings, opening a new chapter in her life…appears she had gotten married as well.
