Let me ask you something. If you are hungry or tired do you want to do those 20 math problems? If your heart is broken do you want to learn how to spell and when to use there, their, and they’re? If you don’t know where you are going to sleep do you want to learn the who’s, what’s, where’s, when’s, why’s, and how’s of how our government system works? Do you want to sit in a desk for 8 hours a day, with only one recess, and a 25 minute lunch with a teacher screaming at your every move? Feeling like you can’t do anything right, or that the other kids are smarter or prettier than you? NO! Of course you don’t! So why am I asking you this? Why would I ask such extreme, absurd questions? Because every SINGLE day, there is a kid who is expected to. A kid who may not have eaten since yesterday when they were only given 20 minutes and 3 carrots. A kid with a disability who is taken out of the classroom because there’s no way this kid is going to learn with the “other kids”, he’s only causing problems. A kid who breaks down crying because he watched his mom get beat up by his dad last night but we tell him to grow up since he’s in 5th grade now.
Tell me why, we as adults get to have it so easy, and get practically coddled while our children are expected to do things that would be difficult for any sane person to accomplish. Tell me how a child could possibly do any work or brainstorm ideas and problem solve when they are heartbroken and feel like no one loves them. Exactly, they can’t. This is where being more than a teacher comes into play. This is why the SECOND a child walks in your classroom they should feel valued and loved. They should have a sense of belonging and respect. I CANNOT express any more how important it is to make your students feel comfortable in your class. They aren’t going to remember you teaching them to add or subtract. They won’t remember you teaching them what h2o is, or who the 18 president of the United States was. What they will remember is how you made them feel cool, or that you would dance around the room and sing with them. They are going to remember the games you played instead of the books they HAD to read. Your students are going to be more willing to think constructively and persevere when they know you’re on their team.
Trust me, I know how hard it can be. I had a child who would throw toys at me and tell me he wanted me to die. Teachers would tell me just give up, you won’t get through to him. But how could I not see the special in him? The way he helped friends build towers, the extravagant towers and pictures he made. The talents this kid acquired. How could I possibly only see the broken, bad side to this kid? I couldn’t. I didn’t give up, I worked for MONTHS to make him trust him. Eventually I finally got him to like me and we became very close. To this day, the kid went from 5-6 incident reports DAILY to maybe 1 or 2 a month. And that’s amazing! I have seen a lot of different kids. From loud and a lot to handle like him, to the quiet little girl who didn’t know her beauty. It doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s the “normal” kid with “normal parents”, but they STILL need love. They need to be shown they belong and they are cared about. They need to be told that they did really well spelling the word “excellent” because that is just what they are and nothing less. They need to know that life is hard, but you’re there for them. That my friends, is what being a teacher truly means. One quote I saw that really spoke to me whose author is known reads “the future of the world is in my classroom today.” So if the future is in my classroom, why would I want to treat them any less as people. Essentially they are little adults learning their way through life. Learning how to be problem solvers, and garbage truck drivers. Learning to be soldiers, who save our lives on a daily basis. They are learning and watching how to be husbands and wives, moms and dads, teachers, principals, and police officers. They are learning to be librarians and dancers, engineers, and future mentors to the “troubled kids” they were once labeled as. Now let me ask, do we want them to push those children aside, or persevere and help them? I think you can answer that one for yourself. Being a teacher is SO much more than just teaching curriculum, it’s being a comfort and a light to our little minds, our future world.
