Why I'm Here...

"only rich people don't have Link cards..."

Link cards are food stamps.


The fifth graders had a discussion in my class today about how it is only the very rich who do not have to use food stamps.

This broke my heart. It is certainly true that rich people do not use food stamps, but neither do people who are making enough to provide for their families, whether or not they need the extra help.

I started to realize there was a reason why I am at St. Ann school, and not another type of school.

At the end of the, kids are kids. They have similar likes, dislikes, dreams, and desires.

But what sets my students apart from the white kids living on the North side of the city is the problems they face when they go home: absentee parents, empty tummies, gang violence, and a multitude of social disparities.

It is hard for me to not take their problems back with me at night, to wish that I could somehow guarentee that each of them would have a bright future.

It is hard to hear that some of them don't see their mothers all week, because she leaves for work before they wake up, and comes back after they are sleeping. Although this is a reality in many social classes in America, it still turns my stomach.


It is hard to hear that a school down the street recently just lost two of its students, one 4th grader and one 2nd grader, because their father shot them to death.

It is hard to watch them eat the governement provided lunches, even if it's something they hate, because it might be the only meal they get that day.

However, these are the reasons I strive to find the stregnth to shine brighter and last longer in the classroom. To step outside of my comfort zone, to eat those government lunches with them, to get in touch with my imagination, to really give 110% of who I am to these kids everyday.

This year is for them. It is all for them.