uniform
Originally published at A Poet's Worth. You can comment here or there.
sitting upstairs right now in a duffel bag and a generic large blue plastic bag are 20 Tae Kwon Do uniforms. it’s really amazing to think that I am a vehicle or a tool through which these uniforms will find bodies and fill out. I’ve dressed my kids in uniforms before but that was on the scale of 7 or 8. right now, I’ve got 20 and I’ll probably have to buy another 20 or 30 more.
just some numbers: I’m currently teaching at 3 different schools. I see anywhere from 10 to 30 kids per hour, for a total of 18 hours a week. that means I’m in charge of the physical and emotional development of some 200 to 300 youth.
and when I say in charge of physical and emotional development, I really mean it. I take this job to heart. on Friday, I had … I think it was 3rd grade, and we were at the end of our workout. 1 of them stopped and I asked her what was wrong. she said she couldn’t do it because she was weak. so I had to give the we’re all weak in our individual ways and we work out to become better and stronger at who we are and we should work together to help each other out speech. to be honest, the speech was short, not too inspiring, and not that convincing, but it was good considering a) I was put on the spot b) it was the 1st time I had to give it and c) they were 3rd graders.