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.