Notes from public school - Day 44

I see the human face.

I write the human face.

(Well, I try to write the human face)

See Courtland.

He’s a tough on the outside, tender on the inside inner-city kid.

If you pass by my classroom and glance at his table, you will see him standing up when he is supposed to be sitting down, trading Pokémon card when he is supposed to be doing Extra Math.

But if you come into my classroom and sit beside him for a while, you will learn that he has a special needs sister in kindergarten.

He loves and cares for her deeply and widely.

You will learn that he took the time to find the perfect shell for me when his family traveled to the beach over Labor Day.

And you will learn that he is the kid who always wants a hug when he enters through the classroom door in the morning.

Sometimes he seems what he’s not.

Sometimes he’s not what he seems.

Always he just...well, he just is.

A human being.

In all the simplicity and complexity of that word.

I write to humanize the person.

It’s my bare knuckled, whole hearted fight against those who would dehumanize the person.

When you hear someone speak of “those people,” I want to write to show they’re our neighbors.

Courtland put this note on my desk this afternoon. 

“I relly love Mr. Barton,” it says.

(We’re working on spelling :)

I relly love him, too.

My black skinned students, my brown skinned students, my white skinned students, my multi-colored skin students...human faces, each and every one.

I hope you can see them and love them, too.