Notes From Public School – Day 125

Today in Social Studies we were studying the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Our activity read, “Imagine that you just moved into a new house. What is the first thing you would do?”

I wonder.

What is the first thing YOU would do?

I said, “I would look for an Olympic sized swimming pool in the backyard, because I love to swim.”

My students chuckled.

“That IS the first thing you would do, Mr. Barton,” they said.

Can you guess the first thing my students would do?

“I would look for a big backyard that was mine to explore, with grass and trees as far as I could see,” said Jhoan.

“I would open all of the windows and let fresh air and sunshine come in,” said Nashly.

When we began this activity, most of my students’ eyes were filled with…what? 

A mixture of sadness and hope?

Yes.

That’s it.

A mixture of sadness and hope.

Since I teach in a Title I school, most of the families I work with every day are at or near the poverty line.

This means they work very hard but struggle to put food on the table and clothes on the back and money for those times they get sick and just can’t get better.

They have enough money to rent a place to live, but not buy a place of their own.

That where the sadness comes from in my little ones’ eyes.

What about the hope?

Where does it come from?

I hope a little bit comes from me.

From 7:30 AM until 2:30 PM, I tell them a hundred times, “You are beautiful! You are a genius! You are wonderful! You are courageous!”

I hope the systems in which we live will tell them that, too.

I hope those systems will help their dreams come true and not leave them with dreams deferred.

The great writer Langston Hughes (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46548/harlem) reminded us of what can happen to a dream deferred.

I don’t want that for them.

I want their dreams to come true.

That’s what I work for each and every day.

That’s why I teach.