Perhaps the most memorable class that I remember took place the day after Halloween. I think it was an all African-American class, probably Grade 10 or 11. A boy said, “I dressed up as a girl for Halloween. Ms. Niles, Does this mean I am gay?” Not one sound was heard from my very verbal Black kids … no giggles, gaffaws, no big laughs nor catcalls! Silence. Well, there went the day’s lesson. I was all of twenty-five and not exactly worldly at that point but for the next fourty-two minutes we talked. We covered virtually everything on the spectrum from what we now call the LGBT community. We knew nothing about transgender but spoke of what we did know. There was not one word spoken that disparaged others. It was if I was standing in front of Grad students at Syracuse University instead of my street babies. In fact, I have taught Grad Students who were less mature about far less challenging subject matter. It was determined that our questioner was no different than the kid who dressed as a pirate. I always believed that one of the greatest failings we had as teachers was severely underestimating our students. They fail to thrive in our classrooms when we fail to appreciate their desire to excel. I was guilty of this on more occasions than I wish to recall.