The Purple Circle

Be warned...this isn't a typical post for me. This is not the uproariously funny (yeah right) stuff that I usually try to post. I have the summer off so I decided to venture off a bit. I mentioned before that I used to have my kids tell me random words and I would make up a short story for them as they fell asleep. This is one of those stories. The only problem was that at the end of this one Kristiana was still wide awake...and she was crying. She made me promise to write it down. It took me a while, but I finally did it.
It is mostly fiction with a bit of truth. And the names of the teachers are from my life. Miss Smith was a teacher who loved our kids as if they were her own, Mrs. (Miss) Weber was a teacher who loved the kids in our family as if we were her own, and Mrs. (Miss) Streit is Sylvia who could out-teach me with one dry erase marker tied behind her back.
Here you go. Kristiana's words were...purple, teacher, and circle.
Hope you enjoy it.


Amy was a timid student who wanted nothing more than to blend in. She loved her teacher, Miss Smith, and even though she was very smart, she was very shy. She loved when it was time to come to the carpet because that was where the class talked about the calendar, practiced reading, and her favorite, listened to stories that the teacher read.

For Amy the stories were not just stories. They were times when she could drift away and ride along with Ralph on his motorcycle, float away tucked into a hiding spot on the giant peach piloted by James, or live off the land of the Adirondack mountains with a falcon as her best friend. Even though she loved school, it was difficult for her to do almost everything. Everything except listen to stories read by Miss Smith.

By the third grade Amy knew the way school worked. She knew that students were supposed to come in and sit quietly. She knew that you never made it all the way through the math book. And she knew that the teacher you had at the beginning of the year would be the teacher you had at the end of the year. That is why she was so sad and didn't understand when Miss Smith invited the class out to the field to have lunch one Friday. While the class sat on the crunchy dry grass, Miss Smith explained that even though she loved teaching and really loved all of her students, she needed to leave this school before the end of the year.

There were many questions and even more tears. Even at her young age Amy knew that there were some things that Miss Smith couldn't tell a group of children about, and quietly, sadly, accepted the fact that they would have a new teacher on Monday.

Back in the classroom Miss Smith picked up the purple circle. All of the kids quietly stood up, pushed in their chairs, and took their places on the carpet. You see, the purple circle was Miss Smith's special signal that told everyone, quietly, that it was time to come and sit down with her. On the carpet, Miss Smith told the class that she wanted to give each of them a book from her own library so they would remember her. Amy started to worry. She didn't like to be called on. She didn't want to be first. She didn't want to have her choice known to everyone. But most of all, she couldn't decide on just one book since she loved them all. When Miss Smith finally called Amy up to choose, Craig and Valerie had already taken the books she was thinking about.

While she looked at the shelf, she felt her face getting red. She didn't want to choose just one. She glanced at Miss Smith who was sitting next to the books with the purple circle in her lap. Suddenly, she knew! "Can I have the purple circle?" Miss Smith laughed and gave Amy a hug, happy for the diversion from the sad parade of students choosing their goodbye gifts. Of course she could have it. In reality the purple circle was just a leftover piece from a project long forgotten. The magic it held to quiet the classroom was assigned by the magic in the teacher. Miss Smith could choose something else if she went to a new classroom. For Amy, the purple circle represented all of the books read in room 31 and she wanted it more than anything else.

And years passed...

Miss Smith had turned into Mrs. Weber. She no longer worked in a classroom but in an office somewhere deep in the board of education for her county. She was very important to teaching but she still missed seeing students every day. That is why she always jumped at the chance to visit classrooms and give awards to teachers who had done well. Today was a day to visit Mrs. Streit.

Mrs. Streit, according to the paperwork that came to Mrs. Weber's office, had done a wonderful job in her first year of teaching and her principal had nominated her for new teacher of the year for the whole state of California.

When Mrs. Weber walked into the fourth grade classroom with the Award in her hand she stayed quietly at the back of the room with the principal. Mrs. Streit was finishing a math lesson. Mrs. Streit was used to people coming into her classroom to see her work with students, and she was told that there would be more visitors today, but she didn't know why. Mrs. Streit looked up at the visitors and was surprised that she recognized both of them. Always a professional, she kept asking questions and getting answers from her class. All the while she kept looking at the newest visitor and smiling slyly. Mrs. Weber noticed the smiles but wasn't quite sure what they meant. Had she figured out that she was the winner of the award even though it was supposed to be a secret? Had she met her before at some educational get together? This new teacher didn't really look familiar so she looked again at the award for Mrs. Streit.

As she looked down, all of the students got up, pushed in their chairs, and were walking quietly to the carpet in the corner of the room. At the front of the room, a smiling Mrs. Amy Streit was holding up a slightly faded purple circle.