You’d think by the time you hit 50 you’d have run across about every type of person imaginable and had to deal with all sorts of situations. That isn’t true, it turns out. I can think of no similar experience in the past. I guess I must be naive! Frankly, I cannot imagine why this has happened. It is so outside of my expectations. It has put me in a difficult situation professionally, to say the least. Of course I can stop personally visiting the schools and sharing feedback, but I arranged to have student observers go to classrooms, for which they receive three college credits toward the minor in education. This possibility was encouraged at our first meeting in 2010, the director attended an on campus student presentation in May 2011, and she was aware that I was recruiting new college student participants for 2011-12.  The university has even provided me with a small grant that helps to defray the students’ mileage costs from campus to the schools. I currently have two students participated during the Fall semester, and will be continuing the project this Spring semester. I owe them the experience, and I must honor that commitment, regardless of the status of my relationship with the organization. Why would the director put me in this position? There was never a cross word, and I have been diligently keeping up my end of the bargain. Looking back, I suppose there were red flags, that a more suspicious person would have heeded. But I have always been a person who believes in the moral character of others. Today it looks like my collections efforts may have paid off. Time will tell.