You have to be living under a rock if you are from Kansas City and you have not heard about the recent unfortunate events that have occurred on the Plaza. Let's just say that when I first saw the story on the news I was fairly certain that I would be able to see the face of a former or current student on the news footage if I looked hard enough, so I just turned it off all together. I figured, why ruin a perfectly good Sunday worrying about how I would address this with my kids on Monday. Well, as soon as I knew it, Monday came and I had to figure out a way to talk to my kids about the incident. Let me first just say that I have the honor of working with some of the MOST amazing, insightful, brilliant young people in Kansas City. I am often left astounded by the wisdom and maturity that I see in my kids, (although I will admit that some days it is hard to remember that when they act like typical middle schoolers....) I shared with the scholars that what bothered me the most about the incident is how people would inevitably judge them as a result of the actions of their peers. I feel like we work SO HARD to change the perceptions that people have about inner city youth and that stuff like this crap on the Plaza takes us backwards.
Professionally, I have spent my brief career devoted to empowering young people to make choices to protect their futures. I challenge my kids to rise above the stereotypes, labels and reduced expectations that society has for them and a lot of my kids work their butts off to accomplish this. The ones who don't are the issue. As an organization we have tried to impress upon our scholars that they are different, they are not a statistic, they are not doomed to repeat the mistakes of others and that they can achieve whatever they dream of with hard work and dedication. In teaching this difference we hope to make our scholars understand that they will sometimes have to stand alone against what might be popular and that it will be really hard because, lets face it, at the end of the day they are kids. They want to have fun, they want to be popular and they don't WANT to be different. Furthermore, how do we make society (and the media) understand that these kids are different!! There are AMAZING young people living amongst the degenerates who were featured in the stories in the news!!
Needless to say, I was frustrated and feeling a little disgusted with the whole thing! Then I remembered that I had to work that weekend. I'm sure you are thinking, "how could that possible make you feel better?" Well, last weekend just happened to be our annual community service day. Our scholars and their parents spend the day helping us host a carnival type event that is free and open to the public. We also raise some form of donation for a charity organization (this year it was food for the Haiti earthquake victims.) I have always loved doing community service, it just makes me feel good about the world. However, as a teacher, watching my kids do for others gives me a sense of pride that I just can't put into words. While I was watching my scholars pay such careful attention to the little kids as they moved about the carnival I could not help but think that it was just what I needed. The absolute BEST part of my day was when one of my kids turned to me and said, "You know Mrs. AC, if we could just get a flash mob of kids to do something good like this every once in a while, the world would be a much better place." All I could do was give her a hug and tell her that I thought she was right....I then excused myself to the restroom so she would not see the big fat tears of pride that were about to stream down my face. Later, when I got in my car to head home after a really long day, I could not help but smile and think that maybe one day at a time, one kid a time we are making a real difference and for me... well I just could not ask for more.
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