5 Things Inner City Teachers Do

5 things inner city teachers find themselves doing (that have nothing to do with education):


1.  You will end up driving your students home, to the train station, or to the bus station because its to cold and dark outside to let them go by themselves.

2.   You will have to become a parent to your students (making sure they eat, have a coat,  have clean clothes, etc.)

3.    You will have to babysit your students' little brothers and sisters after school while your students are at practice or club meetings.

4.    You will end up having at least one kid who ends up staying after school with you everyday because they don't want to go home.

5.    No matter how tired you are from the day, you will openly allow numbers 1-4 to happen even if its a Friday because you don't have the heart to say no.


As a first year teacher you think well is it right to drop off a kid at their house?  Is it legal?  Then you end up looking outside and realizing that its 5pm, its dark, its cold, and its not such a great neighborhood.  Does it matter if its legal or not?  I still don't know the right answer but I do know whats humane.  Hopefully being humane overrides the legality of things.

It surprises me that however much these kids annoy me at times, argue with me, act up in my class, they still come back to me.  They still want to "hang out".  It amazes me.  But then again, they're just trying to create a strong relationships with their teachers and so I let them.  I allow them to stay after school with me.  Sit in my classroom as I grade papers, clean my room, prepare for the next day.  And it amazes me the things that they dish out about their lives.  And I can't help but think wow!  The things that these kids go through everyday.  I remember when I was in middle school.  The biggest problem I had was what I would wear the next day.  My life was a joke compared to theirs.

The point of this blogpost?  I'm slowly realizing how much I love these kids.

-Ms. P