"They Won't Build No Schools Anymore..."

This week I have had a few frustrating moments with my students. I teach at a junior high, so perhaps you can understand why my job can be frustrating. But, regardless of the level of frustration I at times feel, I love what I do. I know that education is the key to a better life.

It is difficult to aspire to better than what you experience at home. Many of the kids I have taught over the years have come from anything but an ideal home. Often the kids come from single-parent homes where the one parent has to work too much to be much of a parent at all. The focus is on getting more money and not on building a strong family. Kids are often left to their own resources to come up with breakfast or dinner, or both, and I have been surprised that some of them make it to school at all.

This week one of my students told me that he is dropping out in February. He is in the ninth grade and is dropping out! He thinks he will have a better life by leaving school and doing... what? What will he do? What will become of this poor, foolish young man? Will he become just another statistic of a failing system? I tried to talk to him but he is just too smart to be taught. Perhaps you know the type? Perhaps you were (or are) the type. No one knows more than an apathetic teenager!

Today I read that Memphis City Schools are in such a poor financial state that they may have to close the schools this fall. They will shut the doors! Can you imagine an entire city closing their schools?? What is going on? How can we be in such a bad place that we cannot afford to educate our children? And what will become of these kids? I can tell you that the first thing that came to my mind was that they will have to build a bigger prison if they shut down the schools. When I told this news to Mike he referred me to the video below. The song is "I am a Prisoner" by Lucky Dube, a South African reggae artist who was killed in 2007. He was a good man. This song and video are, I think, very appropriate and call to us all to help protect our schools, help raise students and not prisoners, and make learning and education a priority. If the government has to choose between housing the criminals or teaching the children, what choice do you think they will make?