School Days
“I still see her in the classroom, her hand raised,” says Pauline Popa-Jones, the head of section for Emma’s years in middle and high school, from 2010 to 2017. I had a chance to speak to Mrs. Popa-Jones in her classroom as she was getting ready to retire in just a few days. Indeed, one of Emma’s besties says her classmates would poke fun at her for this, hand twisting in the air. Was it impatience? Did she really know the answer BEFORE the question was out? Perhaps an insatiable quest to learn. Once after a class trip to Scotland, Emma was quick to give the organizer feedback: “That was fun, but a little short on content.” Emma was an ace of a student, in an amazing class of students. They were brilliant, creative, and fun-loving. It wasn’t perfect. There were sometimes painful teenage issues over the years. But generally, the students comprised a happy class. This class was the first class of a new “international section” at the school. The other state school in Paris housing s...