Fifty Years From Now

There are moments during a teacher's career that cannot be measured in worth, because the truth is, they are priceless. These moments seem to make up for all the times that your well-planned lessons are met with dozens of questions, or worse yet, blank stares. These moments make up for the times when you've already sent disruptive students away from the puzzle table and back to their desks, and you've attended to three stomach aches, a headache and an ant bite before 9:30 a.m.

These moments make it all worthwhile.

Today I experienced such a moment.

We were in history and geography class discussing the country of Hong Kong. We talked about the Opium Wars between Britain and China, and how Britain set up a port city in Hong Kong to keep the trade open, against China's will. Hong Kong was leased to Britain for 99 years.

Bad form, Britain, my class concluded.

Then we discussed China's communist government taking over, which led to the exodus of the Chinese people into Hong Kong. China wanted Hong Kong back, but Britain refused, saying that China would ruin Hong Kong.

Good form, Britain, my class concluded.

In 1997 the 99 years was up. China took Hong Kong back, but agreed to make no changes for fifty years. "Guys," I said, "this is current history! This wasn't ages ago, this is right now! Do you realize that we are in those fifty years?"

My students were amazed to think that they were living in history, and that we didn't know what changes China would make to Hong Kong because those fifty years aren't up yet. I told them to listen to the news in 2047 to find out the end of this story.

"I never knew H & G was fun!" Matthew shouted. "Mrs. Hatfield,  you make H & G fun!"

I was tickled pink, but the best was yet to come...

"Will we still be alive in 2047?" the class eagerly asked. We did the math on the board. "Most of you will be 44."

"How old will you be, Mrs. Hatfield?" Again, we did the math and came up with the ripe old age of 83.

"Eighty-three!" the class was shocked.

Then Matthew looked at me and smiled. "Don't worry, Mrs. Hatfield," he consoled, "I'll come visit ya and let ya know what happens."