November 30, 2024: One teacher's response to "Backward and Blind"

"I've been a teacher for over 30 years and I connected with none of your stories.  None."

I was at a loss. Really?  None?  Did teachers have such vastly different experiences or feelings than I did?

"Wow, how so?" I was genuinely disarmed and curious at the same time.

"Only one kid threw a desk?  I have multiple kids throwing desks every day." 

I bit my lip. 

"And only one death?  And from natural causes?"  She threw out a "HA," kind of sarcastic laugh. 

Meekly, I said, "No, I had other kids die. I just chose that one." 

"From overdoses?  From drive-by shootings?  Suicide?" 

I felt as though a bucket of ice was dropped on my head. 

"I teach in the valley. Your experience was so foreign to me."  

I let that hang in the air a minute. 

"Oh, please record and write about your experience.  It's important." 

"Ha," again, that sarcastic laugh.  "I'll never do that." 

"I really honor what you do.  It's amazing to me that you are really out there trying to keep kids alive.  I could never do your job."  I was genuinely humbled.  She was a true educator, someone who changes lives, tries to set young people on a path to success.

She was quick to answer: "I could never do yours." 

While one of the reasons I wrote was to honor teachers, show how they needed respect, it dawned on me that something she might write would show how teachers needed hazard pay. She was certainly more gutsy than I.

While the above is rough paraphrasing, the message is the same as what was really said. It was an awkward conversation at a party last weekend. As I drove home, I considered the conversation and why I was so uncomfortable.  I was struck by how my teaching job was really one that was privileged.  I was spoiled, teaching kiddoes from families who paid a significant fee to send their children to school. My extraordinary (the parent who arrived to a 9 am teacher/parent meeting drunk, for example) was her ordinary. 

I've often argued that, "Kids are kids." and that is true.  But the circumstances of being a kid is not the same.  As a result, some sets of kids can become vastly different from other groups of kids. 

When I began teaching in this privileged environment, I struggled to justify my position.  I said, "Even rich kids need good teachers or have problems that are serious."  I said, "These kids will be the ones who go on to run corporations or the government and I'll be able to have wider influence on our world through them than through kids in poverty."  I worked hard to justify this.  

Ultimately, I had my own children and focused on keeping them safe, educated, and on a path to success.  For the last twenty or so years of my career, I never considered teaching at someplace other than a private school because I saw the opportunities of private schools for my own children.  Don't all parents want what's best for their child?  Don't all parents want to guarantee safety, freedom from violence, and opportunity?