As most of you know, I teach in an inner city school with a multitude of very needy children. Not just needy in the sense they are poverty stricken, but also needy in an emotional sense and a need for love and nurturing sense. Sometimes things happen that make me want to laugh and other times things happen that make me want to cry. Today it was both.
I start of each class with what is called a "Bell Ringer". A Bell Ringer is a warm-up activity to get the students prepared for class and ready to learn. Most days this activity involves putting two incorrectly written sentences on the board and the students must correct all grammatical and punctuation errors. I also include two analogies that the students must complete. For example, Apple:Red :: Banana:________. Obviously the answer is yellow. One of today's analogies was Foe:________ :: Enemy:Ally. Of course the answer is "friend", but that's not the answer I received today. When I asked for the answer, one young man answered, "Fye". Fye????? At first I thought he was referring to the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk saying, "Fee, Fye, Foe, Fum". This would be a reasonable (yet incorrect) answer for a child who had never heard the word foe. I asked him to clarify his answer and he said, "Yeah, fye. You know, the number after foe". I was dumbfounded. I really didn't even know what to say. I think my response was something like, "Ummmm.... yeah. No. Good try though". Sheesh!
The other situation is much more serious and quite sad. You know how cold it has been lately. Sub zero temperatures and double digit sub zero wind chills. Brutally cold conditions. Several days last week we delayed school until 10:00 to allow the temperatures to warm (if only slightly) for the kids to come to school. This did not stop some parents from dropping their children off at school just after 7:00. THREE hours before the start of school. This saddened and sickened me. What parents drop off their kids in those conditions to have them stand outside for several hours waiting for the doors to open? Except for the custodian who unlocks the doors and turns on all the lights, I was the first to arrive that morning. I wasn't about to let those poor kids stand out in that deep freeze. The custodian was not in sight of the door, so I was the only one who could help. We normally open the doors about 25 minutes before the opening bell. Not today. I invited the kids inside and had them wait for some other adults to arrive. I sent a few kids various places and even let one sit in my warm classroom for a few hours. I'm guessing these parents assumed caring teachers would allow the kids indoors early (obviously we would), but they took a serious gamble. If I had not been at school early that morning, those kids could have been outside for half an hour or more. That's a long time when the the wind chill is 10-15 below zero. I'm not asking for a pat on the back. No decent adult would let kids stand outside in that mess. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
On a similar note... relating to these frigid temperatures. I am flabbergasted at the number of kids who come to school wearing nothing but a hooded sweatshirt. No coat, no hat, no gloves, no scarf. This is NOT a chilly autumn morning. These are arctic-like conditions. The school and other agencies offer free coats and other winter clothing items. Some kids get them and promptly destroy them or lose them in a household that could only be described as chaotic. The whole thing just breaks your heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment