In high school, my main priority was to earn high grades. My parents constantly stressed the importance of education. They were not happy when I received grades lower than an "A". All of my friends' parents felt the same way, and therefore, my friends faced similar academic pressures. A vast majority of the parents in the community wanted to play an active role in their child's education, and therefore, parent-teacher conferences were always packed with parents wanting to discuss their child's progress with the teachers. I grew up thinking that this level of parental involvement and concern about academics was normal.
In addition to this, I never faced problems at home. I always felt safe at home. Both of my parents had stable careers. My family was never in debt. Neither of my parents ever used drugs or consumed alcohol. My sister and I got along well. My parents supported my hobbies and liked my friends. Until I was 21, all four of my grandparents were still alive and lived about twenty minutes away, so they also played an active role in my childhood.
My biggest fears were not getting first chair in band and not getting into my dream college. Surely, this was all part of the "normal" childhood experience, right? All kids faced the same struggles and had the same opportunities I did, right?
A majority of people, particularly children and teenagers who don't have as much life experience, are conditioned to believe that the circumstances in which they grow up are the norm, and that all kids and teenagers face the same struggles and have the same luxuries they do. I was no exception to this state of mind.
Imagine my culture shock, then, when I started teaching at schools in "high needs" areas. For the last two school years, I have taught at two charter schools. The first charter school (grades K-8) was near a large city, where 99% of our students qualified for free or reduced lunch. When that school closed at the end of last school year, I had to find a new job. My current job is at a charter high school (grades 9-12) near a different large city, where about 70% of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
When I saw the anonymous notes from students posted under the hashtag "#IWishMyTeacherKnew", several of my students from both this and last school year immediately came to mind. These notes are genuine cries for help from children living in poverty, children who feel like they neither have a voice nor the power to change their lives for the better. For many of these children, school is the best part of the day; it provides them with the structure and even - dare I say it? - the love that they don't necessarily get at home. For some of them, the only meals they eat are the free breakfasts and lunches served at school.
When a student places his/her head down on the desk or seems genuinely disengaged with a lesson, a young teacher's first instinct is to assume that the student is simply bored and just does not feel like paying attention - after all, that was mostly why students put their heads down at my school growing up. In the setting of a "high needs" school, however, a student's disengagement could have to do with a number of other factors that could indicate a much larger problem than mere boredom.
Although I never had the brilliant idea of asking my students to complete the sentence "I wish my teacher knew...", I would like to share a few of the rough student life situations that have come to my attention over the last two school years:
- Homelessness (several students)
- Abandonment by one or both parents
- Abuse from a parent or sibling (the proper CPS paperwork was filed)
- Death of a parent or sibling
- Parent facing severe depression/alcoholism. Student acts as "head of the household"
- Parent deported to Mexico (several students)
- One or both parents in jail (I have found some of the mugshots online, sadly)
- No food at home
- Too many kids in the house. Does not receive enough attention from mom and/or dad.
- Parent diagnosed with cancer or other terminal disease
- House fire destroyed everything
- Travels from house to house, family member to family member, because nobody seems to want to raise him/her
- Student will be kicked out of the house if he/she does not finish high school by age 18
- Student works after school. Student is sole provider of income in the family
...and these are just some of the tough life situations students faced while they were students in my class. Who is to say what some of these students and their families endured beforehand? What have some of my former middle school students from last year endured since I last saw them? These thoughts can be very unsettling, but they are thoughts that circulate through my mind every day.
I greatly admire Kyle Schwartz for bringing her students' "I wish my teacher knew..." responses to national attention. Not only does bringing these struggles to national attention encourage the general public to stop and think about the unspoken hardships of many students living in poverty, but it also reinforces a general life lesson:
"Always be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle." -Plato
I try to be lenient for certain students when it comes to homework deadlines. I work out individual plans with some students so that they could work around their life circumstances to find a way to be a successful learner in my class. I try to show my students that I care about them by getting to know them.
Prior to becoming a teacher, I lived solely in my middle-class bubble. Like others who have fully lived life in either the middle or upper class, I was aware that poverty existed and that there were thousands of men, women, and children in the U.S. alone who faced it. Now that I am teaching, however, I associate specific names and faces with these rather unfortunate circumstances. These are young people and their families about whom I really care. They're all good people. They don't deserve these unfortunate life circumstances; nobody does.
And that's it. That's why I teach, and that's why I specifically enjoy teaching in "high needs" areas. I do it for them. I genuinely want my students to succeed and to get out of these unstable and often sad situations. I want them to be able to provide a loving and safe environment for their future families and to be able to hold jobs that will keep them out of debt. I don't want them to ever have to worry about when they will eat their next meal. I want them to live a life where they feel safe and respected. The thought of their potential future successes wakes me up every week day morning. It's what motivates me to spend a large portion of my time and energy writing meaningful lessons for them. Its what makes me want to take the steps to become the best possible teacher and mentor I can be for them.
I hope everyone who is fortunate enough to be financially stable can find a way to help other people. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Build a house with Habitat for Humanity. Find other volunteer opportunities in your community or through your religious organization. Meet the names and faces of those who did not grow up as fortunate as you, whose struggles you may never fully understand. Make somebody's life better because you were a part of it. I promise the experience will change your life.
To conclude:
