Teaching Hope...or, hope for my sanity

I just finished reading Teaching Hope: Stories from the Freedom Writers' Teachers and it was all I needed to hear/read/see/experience.  I've been at my school for 4 years now and teaching the same type (demographic, ethnicity, etc.) of kids for the past 5-6 years.  This is a tough population, true, but I find myself drawn to these tough kids.  I like how I as a teacher who is not of their ethnicity, background, or even lifestyle, can push these up-til-now so resistant to ANYthing kids and get them to realize their full potential.

Case in point, a former student (F.) came in today, and this student was one of my very first students when I started at this school.  This beautiful young woman graduated high school and will be attending college this fall.  It gave me hope that I am truly touching lives, even if they don't show it right away.

Back to the book and, ironically, this particular young woman.  My first (or maybe second?) year, I'd taught the book The Freedom Writer's Diary with F. and her classmates.  This student was part of a small group cohort of about 20 students who were pulled for extra help in a small class environment.  Between myself and the 3 other teachers who taught F. and her classmates, we actually did create a "Room 203" environment where the kids could come to any of us and talk about their problems. Case in point, the year after F. and some classmates left, another former student was killed in a car accident.  F. and 3 of her friends came back to our room, sat and talked to me and the other staff because, "This was the only place that we call home."  We sat, talked about the young man gone too soon, cried, and grieved with each other.  That moment still sticks with me even these few years later.

Lately I've been feeling discouraged so when I was at the library over spring break, I picked up Teaching Hope as it was on the display just as you walked in.  Reading the teachers' accounts, I felt my own teaching spirit renew as I know now that I'm not the only one going through the "trenches", busting my ass for little pay, even less recognition, and trying to make some damn bit of difference in a kid's life.  This quote by Ana Quindlen, from the book's forward says it all:

"And so I stick with my blanket statement: It’s the toughest job there is, and maybe the most satisfying, too. There are lives lost in this book, and there are lives saved, too, if salvation means a young man or woman begins to feel deserving of a place on the planet. “Everyone knows I’m gonna fail,” says one boy, and then he doesn’t. What could be more soul- satisfying? These are the most influential professionals most of us will ever meet. The effects of their work will last forever. Each one here has a story to tell, each different, but if there is one sentiment, one sentence, that appears over and over again, it is this simple declaration: I am a teacher. They say it with dedication and pride, and well they should. On behalf of all students–current, former, and those to come–let me echo that with a sentiment of my own: Thank you for what you do" (2009)