Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Burdened.

I am back at my Mac, and I actually know how to post pictures, but for this entry I won't.

Normally my pictures are whimsical or cheeky or whatever. Today, however, I'm feeling neither emotion.

You know the AWESOME kid that I blogged about just a short while ago? Well, he came around to my classroom after school today to talk. I know he's been in a pretty rough state for the past week or so. He's been stressed, disengaged and generally withdrawn. I mentioned to him this morning that I'm always around if he ever feels like chatting.

Anyway, following dismissal he showed up and he basically poured out his soul to me. Everything that has been weighing on this brilliant mind came pouring out and it was worse than I had ever expected it to be. He was crying as he talked. I was on the verge of crying, myself, as I listened.

Jesus, it just places much-needed but often overlooked perspective on the fact that these kids are coming to school with so much CRAP on their minds. How can we honestly expect school to be a priority to them when they're so burdened by the difficulties of their own lives?

This poor baby.

I restate that I will go and break the miserable face of anybody who ruins this kid. Not this kid. I won't have it.

1 comment:

Juanita said...

Oh, damn! That is so sad. I'm glad he has you. I'm reminded of this patient I had last week, this homeless guy with HIV that wandered into the federal building and collapsed. The poor guy was death warmed over, and as I looked at him, all I could think was this: How does this happen to somebody's baby boy? People need to take care of their babies!!! What's wrong with this world? Thanks for picking up the slack and showing some love to your little student.