Last week, following the events in San Bernardino, I read this article called "When did it become a teacher's job to stop a bullet for your child?" I have been calling the same question to mind since being in the schools full-time starting this August. From several hours of ALICE training to all-school practice evacuations, districts are stressing the importance of safety on school grounds. For teachers, these threats became a part of our daily reality. At the school I currently teach at, the district is still deciding whether or not we will hold school on Wednesday after a threat was made at our high school. While some parents are choosing to keep their children home, many of us teachers are aware that although this threat may be a reminder, the danger is always there. From the article: Every time incidents of school-related violence occur, my colleagues and I think of the numerous ways we might one day have to use our bodies as barricades to protect the students whom we love dearly from potential other students whom we also love so dearly. [...] First of all, I want to state that I absolutely am of the opinion that gun violence is related to the legality of carrying and owning a firearm. I do still believe that there are factors, such as mental health, that play an important and significant role in the mass shootings I am talking about, but the fact that guns are still finding their way into the hands of so many people is alarming. The number of firearm deaths is astonishing - in 2013 the total of motor vehicle traffic deaths was 33,804 and the total of firearm deaths was 33,636. It needs to end. But really, this isn't the point I am trying to make. This isn't what brought me to post about school shootings today.
When I first knew, deep-down-in-my-soul truly knew, that teaching was my calling, was when I first met a student I only remember as "Rachel" (a fake name I used on a paper a few years ago). Rachel came from a home where each day was different, each day was potentially unsafe. Each day gave her the opportunity to feel unloved and uncared for. So I decided that although I couldn't fix everything Rachel experienced at home (but as a teacher I'd do my damnedest to try), I could be someone who cared for her for 8 hours a day. And that is what I have chosen and what I have committed to as a teacher. Every day, that looks like letting my students know they are loved, valued, and respected as human beings. Most days, that looks like making sure they get the best possible education they can. Some days, that means sending them home with food, or letting them nap in my room because they were up late picking up mom from work. And maybe one day, that will mean putting my own life at risk for one of theirs. I pray that will never happen, but I know what I have committed to.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
December 2022
I'm guessing I'll have it all figured out by the time I turn 30.
|