(no subject)
It’s scary when I read an article in a psychology book and I cry. It’s not that I’m normally a cold person but the article was simple. A boy with a bad home life starts doing poorly in school. Teacher doesn’t do anything. Then sees her problem. Then fixes it and he ends up graduating. Eventually becomes a doctoral… etc. etc. I see myself in the student, not that I had a bad home life but in his actions in the classroom and towards the teacher, and then, perhaps now more importantly, I see myself in the teacher. Everyday at work I do what I can for the few students we have whose parents don’t care, who have felt abuse, who don’t do well in school because, apparently, their basic needs are not being met. How do I help? I cant, I guess. But I want to. I’m told it’s because I’m young and idealistic but I highly disagree. I’m not idealist. I don’t ever think life will be perfect but I do think that every child in Ithaca, NY can eat dinner at night, sleep in a bed, having a loving family and not get hurt day after day by the people that are supposed to love them. Maybe I am being idealistic but… sometimes someone has to be and it’s not the students. Last year an 8th grade 13 year-old boy went home after our program to an empty house. His mother had left him. A 7th grade 12 year-old girl was sexually abused for years as a child and now can’t catch up in school and trusts no one to help her. Do I blame her? How can I expect some of these kids to trust an adult, or anyone, when the people they should trust the most have turned their back. I wish I were young again. Young and in a town where these actions were not reflected, at least publicly, and I didn’t know such crude actions existed.