Today I witnessed a what I would like to call a catastrophe of the human mind and heart. I realize that statement is dramatic but really that is the point. I sat at a DC meeting with some other teachers and really, it's just ridiculous.... I know I've said this before but 'why are people teachers or educators or people that are around kids or just people in general?' If you don't like people and you think kids are dumb and will never learn anything, then why go to your job everyday? Save the rest of us and all 180 kids and just quit and find another job that pays more that will also pay to hear you gripe about all the things wrong with kids today. There are a few of us who still care and want to do a good job and, I know this will be shocking, we like kids! Who knew there were such teachers in the world? Oh, but they do exist, not the man I was sitting next to but they do exist in places where people still have hope even thought they haven't met AYP and their scores haven't even improved on the CRT's. AND there is still hope in students who don't speak English, we have no idea why their parents left their country, they're in gangs and are hard headed. There is hope and I believe it because I have seen it when something connects and all of a sudden makes sense in class, or more importantly when we are having a conversation about whatever it is for the day and they realize that wow, someone actually cares! I bet that the students that work with that man would do MUCH better if they felt like he cared and they felt like he wanted something better for them.
... I say this because... we've got another thing coming to us if the only thing we are going to believe about the next generation is that they're worthless, we are very wrong. I have so many kids who genuinely care about others, who really want the best for their lives and other people, and who have a heart to give back the little that has been given to them. It has been shown statistically that a characteristic/quality of people who live in poverty will give up everything so that someone else can have something small. I saw it in Africa and I see it in my kids here who I know will go without for the next few days so that someone else can have. They understand empathy. They have put themselves in other peoples' shoes so that they know what it's like to be on the other side. I know that if my kids do nothing else for this world, that they will have spent themselves on people, things that matter and things that make a difference. And there is nothing wrong with that... now the people who believe other things about them.... they are what's wrong with the world but we will not let them bring the hopeful few of us down. We must believe that at the core of every person there is some good.
-Melis
"There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them." -Mother Teresa
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