Working Hard? Or Hardly Working?

"All [white] all around, we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight. Yeah. That is how it goes and goes." -Sandra Cisneros

I work in an urban middle school in a not so hot neighborhood. I've worked there for 9 years, and frankly, I can't imagine working anywhere else. Usually when people realize that I work at School X, in Neighborhood Y, they can't seem to fathom why I've remained there for so long. At the onset of my career, I could have chosen a more illustrious school, one with high performing students, but instead, I chose School X. And I'm happy with my choice.

Occasionally, though, it's difficult to field insensitive remarks that are made. Ones like, "If you had to go to another school [implying a high performing school], you would have to work a lot harder."

Excuse me?

Or, "We [at Illustrious School] have a lot higher standards for our students. . . ."

What?

Talk about invalidating. I work my arse off with kids who come to school unbathen in unkempt clothing, with kids who come from single-family homes (either their dad is in jail, dead or missing), with students who come from families so blended and mixed up, I don't dare ask why they have four siblings with varying surnames. I work with kids who eat Hot Cheetos for breakfast and then they feast on the free lunches provided by the state.

These are the kids who go home to empty apartments, the ones that stay vacant and lonely until their parents come home late in the evening. Or most often, these students are found loitering the campus premises after school hours, simply because home is an unhappy place.

As a teacher at School X, I am forced to be a surrogate mother, friend, confidante, counselor, nurse, psychologist.

"But our teachers at Illustrious School have to do that too" they say.

Well, Illustrious teacher. How many of your students have died/become pregnant/committed suicide? How many of your students are drop-outs? And how many of them hear bullets go off at night? every night?

Not too many, I presume.

And do your students have to worry about rent money? The phone bill? Babysitting younger siblings while mama works the nightshift? Do your students have to worry about what other kids will say because they've worn the same, dirty shirt three days in a row? Or what about having to pull out their hair weaves because the money it would cost to take them off is too burdensome on the wallet?

I don't think that your students have any of these worries.

Oh I know your students have problems and worries too. But your students are pre-packaged and ready to go to college. Because society expects them to succeed. And they will.

But don't get all high-falutin' on me.

"Well what about test scores?" you ask. Excuse me, but haven't you noticed? My students have more imperative things on their minds. Like, say, will I get to see my dad this month? Or I hope we have electricity tonight.

I work my arse off to give my students a safe haven, a place they're happy to be, even if it's in the 20' X 20' space of my classroom. Getting them to enter the classroom and work past their problems and issues at home is HARD WORK. I invite any teacher from Illustrious School to work in my classroom for ONE DAY. ONE.DAY.

Then we'll see who has to work hard.

Comments

[little things]

Teachers have my utmost respect and admiration... My mom was a teacher and I was always amazed at what she went through for her students. I applaud you for working so hard to make sure that your students learn!

[Rubber-Sol]

Thanks for your kind words!

I was feeling a tad negative the day of the post! And your comments brightened my spirits! :)

[Giao]

I admire what you do and how passionately you feel about it! My sister has been trying to find a way to get back to school to go into education (she was a sociology major in school and had a couple student-teaching/internship opportunities in schools/classes similar to yours and she still goes back to visit the kids whenever she's back in town). I know you know how important what you do is! Just know that others do too (whatever other people say!).

[Hank]

No where have I seen a more dead-on articulation of what we go through on a daily basis. There are moments when it's hard to find the energy to deal with our darlings, but your words make it easier. Thank you.