My dad taught in elementary school for over thirty years in the town we lived, so invariably when we went out together to the diner, the mall, or the post office while I was growing up, there was always someone calling out “Hey Dr. B!” followed by a chat to catch up with a former student or their family. To me, it felt like he was mayor and I grew up having a profound understanding of all the people’s lives he affected.

I was reminded of this feeling last night. I attended the life remembrance service for our friend Christina Symanski. I wasn’t struck by just the sheer number of folks that came to pay their respect to her family, but by how everyone talked about Christina. Almost everyone I spoke to described her as having been their teacher- and not just her former students (Christina was an elementary school art teacher just prior to her spinal cord injury in 2005), but her sister, her friends from college, her gaming buddies, even friends she had never met in person before but had advised and counseled online.Read More