Civic Responsibility

Teaching is certainly a profession that chooses you. I get that now. My students often ask what made me become a teacher and the answer is never simple. Really. The question always sends me into a mental retrospective of the past ten years and the only thing I can come up with is that teaching chose me. More than the profession, I'm at a school right now where I'm needed. That's not as arrogant as it sounds. I'm sure you've been somewhere and had that feeling or seen the need for your presence, your gifts, your talents in that place. That's how I feel.

My school is 1/3 African American, 1/3 Hispanic, and 1/3 White. All of my children are wonderful, but they don't always act like it. There are a number of African American girls here who are pregnant and I am furious. There are a number of young African American men who have already seen the inside of a jail cell. Seriously. I don't have to tell you. The stats are out there. You've read them. The problem with stats is that they are numbers and it's easy to be detached from numbers. Let me make it a bit more real for you. The registrar called my classroom a couple of weeks ago and asked for X student's grade in my class. I told her that he had an F because I've only seen him about three times this semester. I then asked why she needed a grade, and she said, "he's incarcerated and they've asked for his grades." Incarcerated? Yes. Now imagine he's your son. Actually you don't have to, because he is.

I understand that teaching isn't just about grammar, spelling, literature, rhetoric, and composition. Oh no. In fact, I spend about 10% of my time doing that. I realize that I am on assignment. Especially with my kids. They have just as much potential as anyone else, they just need a chance to show the world they can do it. My kids get a bad rap because of their circumstances. But I'd like to see the best of students put in a mud pit and escape sparkling clean. It's virtually impossible.

So what's my point right? You're looking at the title and it seems I'm rambling about at risk teens. Well, whether you believe or not, these are your kids too. They are the future.

*Cue Eddie Murphy as the lead singer of Sexual Chocolate sans the activator, the gold crown, the baby blue tux, and the grinding* Ok. I couldn't resist.

At the top of President Obama's list of priorities is volunteerism. Spend time mentoring our youth and teens. If you're in Tulsa, Chicago, NYC, LA, NO, DC, VA, DFW, New Jersey, Houston, Milwaukee, OKC, KC, Oakland, San Francisco, Birmingham, or Miami, you can find someone to mentor. Kids need to see you doing your thing. At this age, modeling is so very important. That's how they learn what to do. THEY WILL DO WHAT THEY SEE SOMEONE ELSE DO-GOOD OR BAD. So they may as well follow in the footsteps of someone who is hard-working, well spoken, intelligent, educated, and lives a life of integrity right? Why you, you ask? I'll answer your question with this question-Why not you?

This entire time I've referred to the students as MY students. I've taken ownership. This is important because some of their parents don't even take ownership. But what if we became so involved with national mentoring initiatives that the mentors and volunteers outnumbered the absentee/deadbeat parents? Can you imagine? We have to stop looking at them as someone else's kids. Remember, it takes a village. Taking ownership of them teaches them ownership. You don't have to be a teacher to do this. Just volunteer. Every church, every city, every community has some sort of program with which you can become involved. If not, then start one. In the words of the great Cos, "COME ON PEOPLE!"