My heart is broken after watching TV all night last night and experiencing the protectors and heroes of the great city of Dallas, the city I call home and grew up in, coming under attack with senseless violence during a peaceful march and demonstration. With the sensationalism of the news and rapid fury gained from the deaths of citizens this past week, in my opinion, it is understandable to protest or rally for the protection of all people. But, the idea and act of killing people just because they don a uniform and badge is wrong. When our protectors, cause harm, justified or not, all sheep should be watchful and cry out for injustice. However, sheep should not wear the fur and fangs of a wolf and cowardly attack for senseless blood. We are all people.
As a 2nd grade teacher in a large school district in Texas, I teach ALL races of students. Heck, I honestly don't care if they are green, purple or blue...if they are in my class, they are MY kids. We are a family.
I spend lots of hours working with my kids each year. In addition to educating my kids with normal school subjects, I try to give them a little more. On a daily basis, I teach my kids right from wrong, explaining with why it’s not okay to yell and call their friends "stupid head, cry baby, or booger eater." I remind my kids to hold the door open for others, greet people with "good morning" or "good afternoon", ladies first, don't interrupt, use your manners when you eat, say yes Mam, no Mam, excuse me, please, and thank-you. I greet my students with a handshake every morning...unless its flu season...we do the elbow bump because nobody wants to spread any flu germs. When we shake hands, I expect them to look at me and I will look at them. This sometimes becomes a game to see who is going to say good morning first with some of my kids. Just like most teachers, I want my kids to be well-behaved and well rounded little corn nuggets. I often find myself explaining the difference, repeatedly, between an inside and outside voice and how it's important to keep things nice and not destroy property. Harnessing their energy and directing it towards good things is a goal of mine. The word bully was a word that came up lots this year...especially if a little nugget had watched the news and saw some of the political bickering that we all know so well now. Thanks to our politicians, my kids now remind each other that they need to be kind to each other and not say mean things and basically try to include everyone in their little social groups. This past year, we really recreated a tight nit group in our class. We considered each other a family member in our class and often used the word "O'hana" from
Lilo and Stitch. O'hana means family and in a family, nobody gets left behind or forgotten.
Everyone who knows me knows that I am a puppy raiser for Southeastern Guide Dogs. My dogs come to school with me. I promote that it's ok and a real good thing to give back to others. It's ok to cry and feel emotion when our puppy is returned to school in Florida. I hope that my kids learn about what it means to volunteer and receive slobbery, wet puppy kisses and a sense of pride from helping someone gain their independence in return. Believe me, my kids help make all my pups well rounded happy dogs and what's even better, my kids know their help is valuable. A person can come into my classroom and ask about the guide dog puppy in training and my students would jump at the change to tell the person about our puppy and the super hero he was becoming. They are making a difference with their help.
As a teacher, I feel that I MUST do something to help change the path our world heading down. My school is in a suburb of Dallas. Late Thursday evening, four Dallas Police Officers lost their lives, one DART Police Officer lost his life, and seven other Police Officers including one civilian were wounded by a sniper during a peaceful protest. Y'all this is ridiculous! This senseless act of violence occurred, about 30 minutes from our school. This is in my backyard. This hits home and quite frankly, it's a scary thing for an adult...I cannot even imagine how it makes children feel.
Two men from other states were killed within a weeks time frame... Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. As of right now, I know what our news has reported. I also know that investigations have not been completed and the truth will come out. What keeps popping into my mind is, what am I going to tell my kids when they ask about this? Believe me, 2nd graders ask and want to talk about
EVERYTHING. Often times, teachers joke about what their students would tell them. The truth is, I probably know
MORE than you would
EVER want me to know about your family, your lifestyle, your house, and what your child sees and hears daily. Trust me, if something happened the night before at home, your child's teacher and at least 21 other students are gonna know about it. Its subjects like this and things that a child experiences or sees that become the questions that they always tend to ask...and teachers often tend to sidestep.
So where do I start and how do you even begin to explain about ALL the lives that were lost? I know that school does not start for another month and seven days, and after teaching students for over twenty years, I know it will be brought up. I can't just say that sometimes people die because they are black. I almost vomited on these words because they are so sickening and wrong. Sometimes people die because they are white, tan, peach, yellow, have different religious backgrounds or sexual orientations. None of this makes sense and I’ve remained silent. But I won’t remain silent anymore. Thank you Ron Clark of the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, GA.
It is impossible for any single human being to fix the issue of social injustice, I believe it is our responsibility to think about what we can do within our own tiny spot of the world. I am a teacher and my kids are my tiny spot of the world. I believe in each of my kids and I do believe that I have an impact on them and can put kindness into their hearts and try to teach them to love one another and do good things for others. Believe has always been a key word I live by...its even tattooed on my right wrist.
Today, I’ve decided that in addition to teaching my kids right from wrong, manners and the obvious reading, writing, math, science and social studies, I will teach them and the truth. Your race, color, gender, sexual orientation, or religion does not and should not define who you are or how you are treated by others. This is what people aren’t getting. Injustices continue to run rampant in our world. I may be only one teacher and my kids may be small, but their small actions and voices are our future leaders. If we start small, changes in our society can be monumental. Injustice is worth fighting for. Injustice is worth spending time and energy to correct but not with violence and death. These changes have to begin somewhere...our future depends on this.
I am ending this blog with a powerful quote to think about.
