“So, the ‘big talk’ was finished, right? Not even close. A year later, my son asked, ‘Mom, what is sex?’ after he heard a kid at school mention the word. I’d been patting myself on the back thinking my son was well-informed up to this point. I remember thinking, ‘Dear god, what if I’m too late?’ My instinct was to stall for time.”
‘Do you know what sex is?’ I pointed to the diagram. ‘I’m SIX, mom!’ He squirmed and furrowed his brows.’: Mom says we shouldn’t ‘have the sex talk,’ ‘we should have many’
‘You don’t belong here and your color is awful!,’ a child said to my 5-year-old African American son on his first day of school.’: Mom worries for her adopted children at school this year, says despite ‘all the goodness, there is hurt’
“Before he even stepped foot into his new classroom, a child on the playground came up to him. At age 5, my son had to come home and tell our family this as we sat around the dinner table. I had to look away so he wouldn’t see my tears.”
‘What, he’s sick of you already?’ My dad, my best bud, left. He allowed a younger woman to tear the family apart. He was no longer my dad. Instead, her husband.’: Woman overcomes childhood trauma, succeeds in school when ‘no longer under mother’s control’
“I realized at an early age that the only way I was going to escape was through education. I was accepted to every single college I had applied. She refused to provide them with her tax return so I could qualify for Financial Aid. I was crushed. But, I pushed forward.”
‘My boyfriend is on the couch. ‘What is wrong?,’ he asks. ‘I’m pregnant.’ I said sobbing. He turned his TV show off and hugged me. ‘What do you want to do?,’ he asked me.’
“I was 19 and in college to be a teacher. Getting pregnant was the last thing on my mind. I had goals, aspirations, a dream career. Everything was going right. My boyfriend and I had only been dating for 6 months, we barely knew each other.”
‘I’m ok to keep repeating until I pass.’ This is my adopted brother. His mother died of lupus; his father has a new family now. He’d need to repeat 6th grade.’
“People question ‘why was he allowed to graduate with that kind of average?’ or ‘he is barely able to read and write, how did he pass?’ The thing is, he tried and kept trying. We never scolded him, never made him feel like he did not know anything. We never made him feel bad about himself.”
‘I gave my 10 year old a math test. He spent nearly an hour and used 4 sheets of scratch paper. He worked each problem with intense concentration.’
“And then, with a deep breath, he handed it to me to be graded. I quickly worked my way through the test and calculated his score. Immediately his eyes filled with tears.”
‘OK, FINE. You don’t want to pay teachers like a college educated PROFESSIONAL? Then give them the glorified BABYSITTER RATE.’
“As a young teacher, I am in $70,000 of school loan debt after finishing my bachelor’s and master’s degree. I had 5 years of experience and a master’s and was making $47,000, and as the primary income in my household, we were living paycheck to paycheck.”
‘Never look down on anyone, unless you are helping them up.’ 94-year-old veteran tells the story of his daily words of wisdom to students
“Gradually, I started talking to the students. We told them, ‘What you do, makes you what you are’. Jenny and I have been married for over sixty years now, and we plan to work with the kids as long as we are able.”
‘I gave him a letter today as he left for college. I never could’ve predicted how hard that drive away would be.’
“I decided to write Peyton a letter before he left. I needed to get out all of the things I wanted to say to him – the good and the bad. I’m sorry we took the easy way out. I wish we would have fought harder for you.”
‘You are a teacher, right? I just want to thank you for everything you do. I see your cart is full with supplies, and I just wanted to help out as much as I can.’
“I was feeling pretty jaded this morning as two different sets of parents at Walmart stopped me in the school supplies aisle to complain about how much they had to get their kids this year. ‘This is just ridiculous. I don’t know how these teachers think we are suppose to get all this stuff.'”
