The Kindness of Strangers

As the president of the local association for Latin teachers in Louisiana, the Louisiana Classical Association, Episcopal Latin teacher Nathalie Roy received requests from as far away as Arizona asking about the well-being of local schools hit by the flood. They were especially interested in schools that taught Latin. “I mentioned Runnels, of course, but I couldn’t help but mention my own classroom which got 3 inches of water. I lost lots of book, interactive boards made with my own hands, and most unfortunate of all, old-school slides which I had taken on trips to Italy and Greece years before digital photography was popular.”

The classics community all over the country and in Louisiana came to her aid. Professors at LSU, Tulane, Northwestern, and the University of Illinois sent Amazon gift cards, replacement slides, and reference books. When Nathalie’s classroom was displaced to the library conference room during Penniman remediation and restoration, iPads which normally contain her students’ textbooks were delayed in getting to her students. Latin teachers in Slidell, Crowley, New Orleans, Virginia, and Colorado came to the rescue, sending hard copies of all the books so that Latin students here at EHS could keep learning Latin without their iPads.

“This experience has been a humbling one for sure. It reminded me of the kindness of strangers.” After moving back into her Penniman Hall classroom after 5 weeks in the conference room, Roy says the thing she missed most was…”desks, by far. It’s the little things that make you realize how blessed we truly are.”

Nathalie Roy has taught Latin at Episcopal for the past 22 years. She loves teaching 6th graders about the 79 AD. eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, but this year’s new online role-playing Latin I class in which students hunt down the meaning of a secret stone to help save the world is fast becoming her favorite experience at Episcopal. She is a National Board certified teacher and life-long Girl Scout.