Echoes and impacts of teaching critically: have you told a favorite teacher about how s/he impacted you?

Yesterday I got an email from a student I taught 10 years ago.  She took French from me in 9th grade when I was teaching at a private boarding school in the U.S.  I remember her well because she was bright, motivated, hard-working and I also taught her older brother.  I had run into her and her mom in a bookstore a few years ago when I was back visiting friends and it was wonderful to see her and get back in touch.  She was on her way to live and study in Jordan for the year.  Yesterday's email informed me that she was back in the states and got a job teaching Arabic at a high school in Massachussetts. 

Today is the day of silence. Students in high schools and college campuses across the U.S. are taking vows of silence to raise awareness about the harassment, discrimination, erasure, and silencing that has happened to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, and intersex families and individuals. A recent bullying-related youth suicide highlights the impacts this hostile school climate creates for ALL - not just GLBTIQ-identified people:

A while ago, I engaged in a written dialogue (metalogue) with two 11th grade students in a school where I conducted research. I got an opportunity to publish the piece as an addendum to an article I had written.

Unfortunately, the metalogue got lost in the initial document and did not get the space it deserved as a stand alone piece. I thought would be a great space to share a piece of my discussion with the students because it follows the theme of my first two entries and raises a lot of important issues that need to be addressed about urban science education.