People That Don't Deserve It

What a week I’ve had. I found myself dealing with unreasonable parents this week. Don’t get me wrong, I have great families and parents who are kind to me and help the school when needed. They support their kids in the right way and believe in what we try to accomplish. I am very thankful for them. Somehow they took a break this week and I was left with those who I cant do anything right for.

At the beginning of the week I was made aware that one of our student’s mother was dying of cancer and had been in bad shape for a while. None of us had any idea this was going on. The teacher that told me this sprung into action, organizing support for this young lady and rallying the other teachers to her side. All during teacher appreciation week. A time where people should be showing support for teachers, and mine were working hard for this little girl. Thank you!

So let me just list the issues I spent my week on. No details, just a list.

Three students refusing to come to school and parent unwilling to make them.
Three separate issues of girl drama and rumors
A theft
A parent disagreement over academics and extra credit
A school bus bully
Scores of kids sent to the office
Arranging medical care for a child who’s parent was unwilling to do so

The amount of time I spent on these, and I’m sure other issues, was staggering. I usually didn’t even know what time it was during the day as I chipped away on these things. On Friday I finally got to check my mailbox. There was a note in there from the above mentioned teacher telling the staff that the mother of our struggling student was given 72 hours to live. Now I have written on this blog before that we very often fail to keep our eye on the ball. I and embarrassed to say that I didn’t. I failed to find one opportunity to speak to this young lady or offer some kind of support to her.

The problem is that this girl is the exact opposite of the issues above. She is a sweet kid that bothers no one. She comes everyday and does her job. She doesn’t play sports so she gets no attention outside of her closest friends. Folks, the problem with schools is not that we don’t teach the kids the right material or that we don’t teach them values, the problem is that we ignore the kids that matter the most. I did that this week and shame on me. I gave my time to people who don’t deserve it and sadly I am forced to do this almost daily. As the school year ends and I reflect on how I can be better, I will definitely keep my eye on the ball.