Friday, May 23, 2008

Tender Moments

My tender moment today: My student, "Jack," was sitting next to me during my planning period. He was supposed to be in the library with the rest of his class, but he was having a tough day and I knew it would be nothing but trouble if I left him there.

"I wish I was white," he says. "Why?" I ask.

"Black people are mean," he says. I scramble to think of a good way to explain, knowing that Jack's parents are really hard on him and abusive at times.

"Not really, think about Ms. H and all the nice black people that work here. And, sometimes white people are mean too. It just depends on the person, not what color they are."

"Well, really I just want to be white so I can be your son," Jack whispers, looking at the carpet.

And that's when my heart melted and I wished I could scoop him up and take him home with me.

2 comments:

  1. I'm so grateful that there are teachers like you out there! Thanks for sharing this story.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That seriously breaks my heart. You must be an awesome teacher be so loving to him. Kudos to you for what you are doing!

    ReplyDelete