The frustrations in my life come so many at a time and so close together...at school, at the grocery store, and on and on I could list the things that happen.
Last week I experienced something that I realize happens a lot (both in my classroom and in everyday American life), but for some reason this time it struck me to blog on the topic. Homeroom 240...my most challenging class this year! For whatever reason, children and adults alike find no room in their pea-sized brain to simply follow instructions...if we all did that, our lives would be soooooo much easier!
As I stood in front of 240 this past week waiting for them to realize I was waiting on them, I simply observed human nature. "Shut-up!" "No you shut-up!" "Why don't you BOTH shut-up!" This situation happens all the time in my classroom. Well, it didn't used to...they used to just continue to talk and not care. Now they get annoyed at each other, then yell back and forth for ten minutes until they run out of steam...don't be fooled though, they get it back in no time!
Frustrations such as this have happened to us since we were kids. I think that understanding manners and common courtesy could easily solve the problems we have in daily life. Heck, not only daily life, I think we might even have world peace!!! The point is that so many people have grown up being treated withOUT love, common courtesy, even faith, and I really believe that it has been detrimental to society.
Another example, or frustration rather, that could have been solved by a little love and faith in a child-hood...As Ryan and I were gone on Friday evening, we returned to find our lovely little apartment had been broken into! Blast! The moron took my computer (a cherished old friend who I have had for five and a half years!), Ryan's iPhone charger (creepy because they had to be snooping in our bedroom, come on now!), my iPod, and our jar of change that we've been saving. Now, in all honesty, WHO DOES THAT?! It makes me sick to think about it, but then I realize how seriously unintelligent this person had to be! Yea, ok intelligent enough to get a laptop, but we have so many more valuable things that he/she could have taken laying out in plain sight, and they choose the five-year-old computer? Clearly they need the money more than me...but REALLY? Thankfully I have most of my documents and photos backed-up to my external HD, but the plain fact that some creepo felt it necessary to enter our home and take things that don't belong to him/her is ridiculous...I guess that's why they call them thieves though. Like I said, had this person been taught through love, faith, and common courtesy, I would not be sitting here wanting to whoop someones butt right now!
When I think back to where this thought originated, I can only hope that my students don't fall into terrible habits such as stealing and worse. Fortunately, I have the opportunity with them to make sure they feel loved, and to make sure they know how to treat others. I may not get all of them, but as long as I get some of them, I am okay with that. It kills me to think that the first thought that my housemates and I thought was, "Well, it was when all the kids from *** school got out on Friday." This is an alternative school in the district where students who have been in trouble with the law are sent. Lucky for us, its four houses down. We shouldn't even have to suspect that a student from that school did this, but unfortunately we did. Unfortunately, human nature shows a pattern in people, and unless we are taught positive patterns, we will end in the destruction of self.
Please continue to pray for my kids, and all of the kids in the district. Please ask that they have mentors, and someone who loves them.
Shalom
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
What We Don't Understand
I have learned so many things about life this year....from my students, my family, and those I have been blessed to meet. I have learned so much more about humility and service, about compassion and blessings, and about how to appreciate what I have in life. I think that I appreciate my everyday blessings of food, family, and friends even more since I have begun teaching.
Recently I have begun to realize that my kids and their parents are doing what they know how to do to the best of their abilities. Majority of my student's parents are foreign...they might be from Jamaica, Puerto Rico, or some other country that is not well developed in the field of education. It is for this reason that I have realized they really don't know how to push their children beyond, "did you do your homework?" My assumption is that they don't truly understand what it takes to make it in the American world of education. My kids have been born into a world that they are set up to fail in. Starting in elementary school, they are already far beyond their peers for the simple fact that they might not have been read to as a small child. They have already not been exposed to the vocabulary that their wealthier peers have been exposed to. In seventh grade, those same parents are trying their darnedest to make ends meet, to give their child opportunity, but it really is a viscous cycle. If the parents of my kids cannot help them to go as far as possible, then how can we expect my kids to help their kids go as far as possible? And on and on it goes.
So here I am in the middle of an American crisis that not everyone recognizes or even knows about, and I am trying to stop the cycle. As only one person, I don't have enough energy to focus on all of my kids. So I have been faced with a choice. Looking at my students, I see so much potential in so many of them, but I am forced to pick and choose who I put the most of my energy into, who I push the hardest, and who I continue to challenge beyond the classroom. I feel the weight on my shoulders that bears down on me because I know in some cases, I am the only one who can really encourage my students to go far, and coach them to get there. Talk about an energy-draining job!
As I sat at dinner last night with a lovely family who supports Teach for America, I realized just how little my students have. I have gotten so used to the dingy clothing that many of them come to school in, and I have gotten used to the emotional struggles that they go through. I really should not be used to it at all. The four children in this family were so bright, so curious, and so well spoken that it made me sad when I think about my kids at school. The two boys in fifth grade are already so far beyond where my seventh graders are in school. They are so engaged in their learning, and so happy to be in school, and I saw so much potential! Then I look back to my kids...what they experience can only be changed by me at this point in their lives...please continue to pray for me and my kids as we go through our journey together this year...pray for their families who may be struggling...and thank you for all of the support you have blessed us with so far.
Recently I have begun to realize that my kids and their parents are doing what they know how to do to the best of their abilities. Majority of my student's parents are foreign...they might be from Jamaica, Puerto Rico, or some other country that is not well developed in the field of education. It is for this reason that I have realized they really don't know how to push their children beyond, "did you do your homework?" My assumption is that they don't truly understand what it takes to make it in the American world of education. My kids have been born into a world that they are set up to fail in. Starting in elementary school, they are already far beyond their peers for the simple fact that they might not have been read to as a small child. They have already not been exposed to the vocabulary that their wealthier peers have been exposed to. In seventh grade, those same parents are trying their darnedest to make ends meet, to give their child opportunity, but it really is a viscous cycle. If the parents of my kids cannot help them to go as far as possible, then how can we expect my kids to help their kids go as far as possible? And on and on it goes.
So here I am in the middle of an American crisis that not everyone recognizes or even knows about, and I am trying to stop the cycle. As only one person, I don't have enough energy to focus on all of my kids. So I have been faced with a choice. Looking at my students, I see so much potential in so many of them, but I am forced to pick and choose who I put the most of my energy into, who I push the hardest, and who I continue to challenge beyond the classroom. I feel the weight on my shoulders that bears down on me because I know in some cases, I am the only one who can really encourage my students to go far, and coach them to get there. Talk about an energy-draining job!
As I sat at dinner last night with a lovely family who supports Teach for America, I realized just how little my students have. I have gotten so used to the dingy clothing that many of them come to school in, and I have gotten used to the emotional struggles that they go through. I really should not be used to it at all. The four children in this family were so bright, so curious, and so well spoken that it made me sad when I think about my kids at school. The two boys in fifth grade are already so far beyond where my seventh graders are in school. They are so engaged in their learning, and so happy to be in school, and I saw so much potential! Then I look back to my kids...what they experience can only be changed by me at this point in their lives...please continue to pray for me and my kids as we go through our journey together this year...pray for their families who may be struggling...and thank you for all of the support you have blessed us with so far.
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