I want to talk about the insane amount of knowledge I have gained in these last few weeks. When I was training to become a teacher, I was told and taught that all kids are capable of learning and that some are just lazy and don't want to. That couldn't be farther from the truth. Let me tell you a story. Tuesday when all of my students came back from their long weekend, I informed them that we would be writing a persuasive letter to the administration. They didn't necessarily have to mail it to the admin, but they would have that opportunity if they chose to do it. A student of mine (let's call him Bobby), is usually very excited to learn. He's usually engaged and ready for class to begin. However, something was different with Bobby on Tuesday. I couldn't get his attention, couldn't get him to answer me and I could tell that no information was registering with him. I finally walked over to the cabinet where I keep all of the journals and grabbed his. I said to him "I don't know what is going on and I don't have to know, but you can always write it down to get it off of your chest." When he looked up at me, I saw a tear start to form in the corner of his eye. Bobby wrote in his journal for 45 minutes. When he handed me his journal, he asked me to read his entry, rip it up and try and understand him. I won't go into details about what was in that journal entry, but there is one thing I can tell you. Bobby couldn't learn that day. There was no possible way that with all of those things going through his mind he could possible process any additional information. Bobby wanted to learn. He wanted those things out of his head, but it just wasn't possible. Most teachers would have kicked Bobby out of class or failed him on his assignment and I'm not going to act like I wasn't frustrated, but I'm glad I gave him a chance.
These kids aren't lazy. They are brilliant young people who have a ton of shit in their lives. They go home to a neighborhood where they don't feel safe. They come to a school where they are looked at like delinquents. They live in a society where nobody wants to give them a chance. I can't imagine ever doing that to these kids. Are there days when I want to quit my job and give up? Of course there are. Are there days when I want to give up on certain students because the challenge is just too much? Yes. But the difference is that I would never do that. I won't walk away from them, I won't give up on helping them make their dreams come true. I've fallen in love with a group of kids that most people can't stand. I've created a relationship with people who have little to no love in their lives at all. I've gotten close with a student who brought a gun to school last year because he was afraid his little brother was going to get hurt after school. I have created a classroom family who knows that I would do anything for them and they would do the same in return. I have students who are usually called selfish and self- centered threaten to beat up whoever it was that put those bruises on me (they were from my car accident). I have the most amazing students in the world and everyone else would realize that if they would just give them a chance.
These kids aren't lazy and they do want to learn, they're just waiting for you to teach them.
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