Opinions

Everyone experiences the pain of losing someone eventually. The Stuyvesant community recently lost English teacher Lynne Evans. For me, it seemed unreal that she could be there one day, and gone the next.

Her death should have affected me deeply, but I couldn’t feel much beyond the initial shock. I was sad over losing a teacher, but I didn’t really know Ms. Evans as a person. She was just another teacher I saw for 40 minutes every day of the week.

News of her death spread quickly, but I doubted if many people actually knew Ms. Evans as a person—rather than just a teacher. It was disheartening to realize that her death would have had a bigger impact on me if she had taught the entire term. Her death showed me how far apart students and teachers really are.

Maintaining relationships with teachers has never been a top priority for me. There is not much time for students to stay after class and have nice chats with teachers about their lives. I don’t blame the teachers for not reaching out to students: they have tests to grade, lesson plans to work out and lives of their own. But if both students and teachers made an effort to share more, talk more or even smile more, it would make for a better and friendlier atmosphere.

Looking back on the few short weeks I knew Ms. Evans, my biggest regret was not getting to know her more. She always made an effort to connect with students and was unerringly polite. A teacher who truly cares about students is rare and should be treasured. I never got the chance to thank her for being so caring and calm no matter what the occasion, and never appreciated her fully until she was gone. In the words of Ms. Evans, Thank you for your attention, ladies and gentlemen.