Bobby from a colleague

Many of you have been following the tribulations and joys of "Bobby," the kid I've had followed closely for the last four years, and was recently awarded the four-year scholarship to College Park U of Maryland. This is an e-mail a colleague wrote to the department about him. I thought it would be cool to document another perspective of him.

"As you may know, one of our students, "Bobby," was awarded a full scholarship to University of (Protection from Google) College Park a couple of weeks ago.
Bobby was in my College Writing class last year. I could tell he was a fairly bright and interesting student from his comments in class, but he failed the first quarter because--surprise, surprise--he missed a lot of classes, clowned around when he was in class, and didn't write several of the assigned essays. However, Bobby decided to buckle down.
He is the only student I've taught at (the school) to go from an "F" in one semester to an "A" the next. And I don't hand out "A's" readily. In the second semester, if he received a lower grade on an essay, he came after school and asked me how he should revise it. His writing really improved and he earned my respect.
Bobby wrote a college application essay in my class, but this year, he decided he wanted to revise it again, to make sure it was strong, and he asked for my suggestions. He completed a couple of revisions, and I told him it was an impressive piece. He mailed it off.
Last week, after he got the news about College Park, Bobby showed up at my classroom door. I thought he was going to thank me for helping him with the essay. But when he shook my hand, he said, "Thanks for failing me."
"What?" I was confused.
"Thanks for failing me," said Bobby. "It made me work hard."

See? He's a special kid.