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I Believe in Teaching — But Sometimes I Have Trouble Believing in My Students
When my students don’t respect the messenger, they can’t receive the message
“I’m tired of doing the impossible for the ungrateful.” — Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.
Washington’s character may have been a defense attorney, but in my eighth year as an educator of color, I feel this pain all too well: I’ve spent my entire teaching career working with students who need me but don’t always want me.
I’m from Georgia, and I have taught the most at-risk students in some of the country’s poorest cities. Some of the students I teach have no running water at home and no access to technology; in the worst cases, their neighborhoods resemble Philadelphia’s Osage Avenue after the MOVE Bombing. The poverty rate in these areas is high, and the unemployment rate mirrors the bleakness of the communities. Literacy levels are among the lowest in these states. I, along with my educator colleagues, walk into the blaze every morning, eager to help.
Caught in the crossfire are the students who love to learn but whom we never notice — the ones who could bloom if they only knew their worth.
