Nodding disease or nodding syndrome is a recent, little known disease which emerged in Sudan in the 1960s.

And none of you are nodding in acknowledgment because it died.

So Ms. Dewey heard this, and she shook her head in despair while fellow teachers were sort of cheering each other on and nodding approvingly.

You, yourself, will find yourself in a hospital bed or your mother, your child there are heads nodding, people who say, Yes, I know exactly what you mean.

Students and parents need you. They need your actual person your physical personhood and your open minds and open ears and boundless compassion, sitting next to them, listening and nodding and asking questions for hours at a time.