Rising Above Circumstances

Being that this is week one of the KCCT, I am finding myself yet again full of emotions (both negative and positive).

I guess my biggest "beef" with the whole testing process is the idea that some students just have it so much harder than others. We, as educators, are expected to hold all students to the same expectations (which I agree with), but in all honesty, how can you expect a student who was taken from his mother, has never seen his father, doesn't get enough sleep or food to eat, and struggles to fit in at school to perform at the same level of the student who lives in a "normal" household?

This raises another question: what is normal? Growing up, I always thought that I came from a normal family with normal goals and aspirations. However, this belief appears to be quite jaded the older I get and longer I teach. I am realizing that I have always been "abnormal" in the sense that I was "normal." There are more students in my classes that come from broken homes than those that live with both parents. There are more students in my classes that have seen things I have only heard about in movies. There are more students in my classes that know and understand more about struggling to make ends met than their own parents because they are the ones responsible for making dinner at night. I have actually had students tell me when responding to my questions about why they do or believe certain things, "My family is crazy. That is just how we are." There are days that I wonder how I can even contend with all the baggage they bring to my classroom door.

It is so hard to feel pity for these students and to lower expectations when you know how hard they have it outside of the classroom, but I also know that my job is to teach them to rise above their circumstances. God didn't make us all alike and He hasn't allowed us to all travel the same path, but He did give us each unique characteristics that make us exceptional in some way and the freewill to exhibit those qualities. So while a student may come to school in tears because dad was taken to jail that every morning, it is my responsibility to show him or her that there is a positive way to look at the situation: Everyone is given a choice and it is up to us to make the right one. Her daddy may not have made the right one, but that doesn't mean she can't.

I am always so proud of my students this time of year because I know how hard they have worked and how far they have come (whether it is to proficiency or not). Deep down I know they all have it in them to be "distinguished" students, it's just getting them to see it for themselves and rise above their circumstances.