Hope in Our Students

Comments that were made over the past few days by the president have really had me 

thinking. Comments about other humans who just happen to be born into an environment that is poor or full of turmoil. Comments about humans who want better lives in a country known for its opportunities. But most of all, I struggle with these comments because they are about humans.

Politics are touchy, no matter how you try to handle them. I spend my days as school teaching empathy, kindness, responsibility, and right from wrong. I do my best to honor the "oath" I have taken not to impart my view on students. It does not matter if you are a Republican, Democrat, or Independent - we should all be able to agree that wrong is wrong. A wrong should never be justified to prove one person is better than another. Who wins when that happens?

You can support a person and still think that an action, comment, or policy is wrong.

Wrong is wrong is wrong - no matter how you want to spin it.

I do not judge my students if they are black, white, Hispanic, Indian, or Asian. I do not judge them if they are Republican, Democrat, or Independent. I do not judge them if they are male or female. I do not judge them if they are lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, questioning, transgender or straight. I do not judge them if they live in the most expensive house in town or a trailer home or have no home. I do not judge them because I respect them as humans, and it is my job to teach them regardless of any differences they bring to my classroom.

So why do I teach?

• I care that students see injustice when Bob Ewell assumes that Atticus will side with him simply because he is a white man in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

• I care that students don't understand why, in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, Crooks isn't welcome with the other men on the farm simply because he is black.  

• I care when students feel the rudeness that is shown in the short story "Blues Ain't No Mockin' Bird" when two white men walk onto Granny's property without permission, never ask her name, proceed to call her Auntie, and then assume that she must be on food stamps because she is black.

• I care that students were able to research the reason that so many professional athletes are protesting by kneeling during the National Anthem, and I respect that they were about to have a conversation about all three sides to the controversy (those protesting, those against the protest, and what flag etiquette actually says).

• I care that they learned about the Troost divide in Kansas City and why so many neighborhoods are in disrepair.

• I care that some of them shield their eyes when we watch video of the Selma March during the Civil Rights Movements because they can't believe that humans were attacked with dogs and sprayed with fire hoses.

• I care that students are moved when they learn about slave mentality in countries like Mauritania, for it is not a state of being physically held captive that makes a person a slave.

But you see, that is part of my job -- to bring up the hurt and the pain that can be found in 

literature -- in a place that students are safe to "feel". I do this so that students know right 

from wrong when they see it happen on a national level. I care that students, no matter how they label themselves, can stand up and say, "that is not how we treat each other, and it is wrong." Days like today reinforce why I teach; I teach against the hate-filled comments that cover the news. In a world full of division, teachers model kindness, compassion, and integrity. Teachers find hope in our students; that is why we teach.