When I first thought of this I thought of how difficult my students lives are and how I really can't compare. So I know this is suppose to be about me but bare with me :)
I work in an "inner city" school. Now its not like NYC or LA or anything like that, but it is still rough. I teach students ages 10-12 some 13 year olds. It is absolutely horrifying to hear the stories that some of my 10-12 years old tell me about their lives.
A lot of my students come from broken homes, or live with their parents who are still not married. Now I am not saying this is the worst thing ever, but statistically speaking, it does greatly affect a child and their behavior. A lot of my student have one or both parents in prison for various reasons. I have three homeless students just in my class, one person who has come to school crying because she found her mom passed out from being high in the living room again, one was locked in his house when the next door neighbor was barricading himself next door at gunpoint, one student who wears the exact same clothing every day because his parents can't afford any other clothes, most of them are fed breakfast, lunch, and dinner at school because we do not know when they will eat again, some who have had relatives shot and killed due to gang violence, and so much more.
These children are 10, 11, and 12 years old. When I was this age I was not fearful of going hungry, loosing a parent, drugs, alcohol, where to live, what I was going to wear. Maybe some of you have similar stories to these children and maybe some of you don't. But I know that I am 23 and have yet to see 90% of what these children see regularly. A lot of them have great families, that work really hard to provide for their children, who are involved in school and work with the teachers well, but a lot of them don't, which is very different from the school and life I grew up in.
So when I thought of my lot in life and put it in perspective of what their lots in life are, there is not comparison about the difficulty and the challenge that they will face compared to me. They do not have things handed to them on a silver platter and will have to work extremely hard to pass high school and even consider college.
Just a perspective on difficulties in ones life. Everyone goes through rough times and maybe you had it worse then they did but anytime I think I have it rough I realize my students would give anything to have my problem be their problem.
I can totally relate to your post! I work with middle schoolers in the Bronx, NY and work an after school program in Harlem. Your students are lucky to have you :)
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For a few summers I worked at a camp that was for children who were "in the system" some were recent immigrants or had gotten themselves in trouble with the law, most were in and out of foster care and the stories I heard over those summers still stick with me. I remember vividly sitting in the grass and a little girl telling me about how she had to move because her dad was in jail for murdering her mom.
ReplyDeleteI titled my post for today perspective because like you said, everyone's got problems but there are people out there who would love to have my problems rather than their own.