The Reunion

Day 53--The class of 1974. 

Forty-four years ago, when I (Lynn) began teaching English at Lexington Christian Academy (LCA), the class of 1974 were 9th graders. They were my first class. There were around 30 students in the grade, and I taught them in two different sections--one of 16 students, the other of 14. It was a teacher's dream to have such small classes. 

We met for class in Room 103. Wanting to create an informal setting for learning, I arranged the desks into a circle for many of our classes, and I sat in one of the student desks in the circle as well. I created bright-yellow bulletin boards on which I hung colorful posters of e. e. cummings poetry. After all, this was the early seventies. 

Every day I made myself a pot of tea in a bright orange tea pot and offered tea to the students if they wanted to join me. 

One of my chief goals as an English teacher was to teach students how to write well. How to think through the content of a paper before writing it by creating an outline of their ideas. How to use words effectively. How to write concisely and clearly. 

They wrote. And wrote. And wrote some more.

I read and commented on papers. And read. And read some more. 

When the class were 11th graders, I was their American English teacher. Because several students in the class were exceptionally gifted, a colleague and I designed and taught an Advanced Placement English class for them when they were 12th graders.

By the time the class graduated, I knew I was pregnant with our first child and I knew I would not be returning to the school to teach. So, I left LCA with the class of 1974.

About a month ago Bas and I learned that the class of 1974 were going to gather at the school for a 40th reunion. When some of the students invited us to join them, we rearranged our schedule so that we could spend time with them.  

What a thrill it was to see the students again and to meet their spouses. Forty years ago, I knew that many of them held great promise. To hear who they have become and what they had accomplished in those forty years was a profound blessing. 

Of the 29 students in the class when they graduated, three of them had died. Nine of them were able to attend the reunion. I was impressed that several of them had traveled a great distance--from Colorado, Arizona, Michigan, and Maryland--to share this night together. 

During our tour of the school, which has expanded and grown tremendously in the four decades, we stopped in Room 103. There were no yellow bulletin boards. No desks in a circle. No bright orange tea pot. 

But we talked about what happened for us in that room. One student said she is so glad that she was forced to write so much. She is now a sales executive with a software company, and writing copy is a major part of her job. She even edits others' copy. Another student is now a cardiac surgeon who has published many articles about his work and research. If I closed my eyes, I could still see their distinct handwriting on their papers. I even remembered the topics of some of their thesis papers.

After a few hours at the school, we joined each other for dinner, where we spent another few hours catching up. I was struck by how much these former students still care for each other and by how much they value the time they had together at LCA. More than one of them remarked that they were disappointed that they did not find in college the kind of close relationships they had had at LCA. 

I left the restaurant feeling very proud of these men and women, blessed to have shared in their journeys. 

The class of 1974. They were my first class. They were my last class. 

They were my favorite class.