You Know We Worry, Right?

I do not live in Lowell. In fact, most of your teachers don’t live in Lowell but we’re all tuned into what happens in this city. 

We hear and see things on TV and radio news, read in newspapers about things that happen, or see alerts on the internet. There are fires, shootings, stabbings, car accidents, really, any number of things happen in a city this size, and they happen every day. 

I am not saying Lowell is a bad place. I live in a similar-sized city and bad things happen there too. It’s just what happens in cities - Boston, the area’s largest city - is in the news every single day for something awful that has happened to someone.

When we hear “Lowell,” our fear is that something bad has happened to one of you or someone in your family. That concern is moderated by seeing you every day. It escalates during the long breaks in December, February, and April. The worst is the Summer break - six weeks of worry and concern without being able to check in on you. 

“During the Summer, every time I hear that something has happened in Lowell, my ears perk up and my heart skips a beat,” one teacher said to me not very long ago. 

There is nothing you or your teachers can do about this, but I thought you ought to know: Your teachers worry about you, when you’re not in school.