Photo via nytimes.com

Turns out our 7th grade alter-egos down the street at Columbia Secondary School and us Columbians have more in common than geography and raging hormones. Just as we go gaga for Michael Taussig’s fashion sense and perfectly coiffed hairdo, so our friends our middle school friends adore their own teachers.

Exhibit A: an article yesterday’s Times about the upcoming commitment ceremony of Chance Nalley, a math teacher at the School. Nalley, one of the School’s strictest teachers, came out to his students at a diversity workshop two years ago and was delighted to find that his students were insistent on being invited to the ceremony. The students’ parents have also been invited. 

The ceremony will take place on campus at St. Paul’s Chapel on April 4. Two-thirds of the School’s ninety-six 7th graders will be at the ceremony, and Nalley has hired an extra security guard…to accommodate the horde of 12-year-olds.