Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post

onetime2 · 08-25-2003, 05:00 AM

While in college I had a History professor who announced at the last class that he would be leaving teaching. He said he wanted to relay a story to all of us that would give us some perspective as we go into the "real" world and to make us think about the people we have around us in our classes.

He told us how he worked in his spare time for a drug outreach program (I believe he confided that he had once been an addict himself or at least someone very close to him was). He talked about his interest in history and how many of the atrocities he read about and spoke to survivors about just weren't "real" to him. I mean he knew they happened and understood the implications of them but the level of evil necessary for them to occur he could never tap into or understand. An event in his personal life gave him a glimpse into this type of horror.

He then told how there was one woman who he was helping through the group he worked with. He detailed her struggles with her husband/boyfriends, jobs, the police, medical problems, etc which were all wrapped into her addiction. He told of how, when she found out she was pregnant, she changed her life. How she quit drugs, got a steady job, started going to school to get a better job, got rid of her addict friends/lovers. She had been doing really well. Her child was born and, amazingly, had none of the medical problems typically associated with mothers who use drugs regularly.

Then, one day, he realized he hadn't heard from her in a while. Something bugged him about it. So, he went over to her house. As he climbed the stairs in her apartment building, he smelled this terrible stench. As he got closer to her floor, the smell got worse. He neared the stairwell door and heard horrible screaming.

He was visibly shaken as he was relaying this story. A man who showed complete control in the classroom, was always cheerful, and incredibly well spoken was struggling to find the words to convey his message.

He said the screaming still rings in his ears when he thinks about it (and sometimes when he doesn't). He broke through the woman's door to find her in her kitchen with the baby in a frying pan over the stove. He threw the woman out of the way and pulled the baby from the pan.

This was many years ago he said. The mother had slipped back into drugs around the time that crack was becoming the drug of choice in inner city neighborhoods. She was quickly out of control on crack even though she had been relatively functional during her years using other drugs. She said the baby was crying and she had to make it stop. Somehow she associated frying it with making it stop.

The professor then said this baby is now 18 (this was around 1990 or '91) and will be entering college. She has terrible scars over the lower half of her body but she is an excellent athlete, student, and person. Going forward, he said, all of you should not take the people you meet for granted. There is an incredible breadth of experience in the people you see everyday. Some are truly amazing people who have overcome immense tragedy. You will never know, just by looking around the classroom, if you are lucky enough to know this girl or others like her. She may be sitting next to you when you come back next year.

With that he thanked us for listening and left the room. A few months later I read a tribute to this man in a local paper. It seems he had been diagnosed with cancer that semester and it had already spread throughout his body. We were among the last classes he ever taught. He chose to spend some of his last days on earth with us instilling a bit of knowledge and hopefully an appreciation for life.

08-25-2003, 05:00 AM	#15 (permalink)
onetime2 Junkie Location: NJ	While in college I had a History professor who announced at the last class that he would be leaving teaching. He said he wanted to relay a story to all of us that would give us some perspective as we go into the "real" world and to make us think about the people we have around us in our classes. He told us how he worked in his spare time for a drug outreach program (I believe he confided that he had once been an addict himself or at least someone very close to him was). He talked about his interest in history and how many of the atrocities he read about and spoke to survivors about just weren't "real" to him. I mean he knew they happened and understood the implications of them but the level of evil necessary for them to occur he could never tap into or understand. An event in his personal life gave him a glimpse into this type of horror. He then told how there was one woman who he was helping through the group he worked with. He detailed her struggles with her husband/boyfriends, jobs, the police, medical problems, etc which were all wrapped into her addiction. He told of how, when she found out she was pregnant, she changed her life. How she quit drugs, got a steady job, started going to school to get a better job, got rid of her addict friends/lovers. She had been doing really well. Her child was born and, amazingly, had none of the medical problems typically associated with mothers who use drugs regularly. Then, one day, he realized he hadn't heard from her in a while. Something bugged him about it. So, he went over to her house. As he climbed the stairs in her apartment building, he smelled this terrible stench. As he got closer to her floor, the smell got worse. He neared the stairwell door and heard horrible screaming. He was visibly shaken as he was relaying this story. A man who showed complete control in the classroom, was always cheerful, and incredibly well spoken was struggling to find the words to convey his message. He said the screaming still rings in his ears when he thinks about it (and sometimes when he doesn't). He broke through the woman's door to find her in her kitchen with the baby in a frying pan over the stove. He threw the woman out of the way and pulled the baby from the pan. This was many years ago he said. The mother had slipped back into drugs around the time that crack was becoming the drug of choice in inner city neighborhoods. She was quickly out of control on crack even though she had been relatively functional during her years using other drugs. She said the baby was crying and she had to make it stop. Somehow she associated frying it with making it stop. The professor then said this baby is now 18 (this was around 1990 or '91) and will be entering college. She has terrible scars over the lower half of her body but she is an excellent athlete, student, and person. Going forward, he said, all of you should not take the people you meet for granted. There is an incredible breadth of experience in the people you see everyday. Some are truly amazing people who have overcome immense tragedy. You will never know, just by looking around the classroom, if you are lucky enough to know this girl or others like her. She may be sitting next to you when you come back next year. With that he thanked us for listening and left the room. A few months later I read a tribute to this man in a local paper. It seems he had been diagnosed with cancer that semester and it had already spread throughout his body. We were among the last classes he ever taught. He chose to spend some of his last days on earth with us instilling a bit of knowledge and hopefully an appreciation for life. __________________ Strive to be more curious than ignorant.