Thursday, September 22, 2011

There Are Four Lights

Mom sits across from the teacher during parent-teacher conferences.  Her face is bruised.  She is staying in a shelter with her daughters.  Dad has a restraining order.

The teacher asks what help he can offer.  Mom bursts into tears.  "Just be kind to my daughter... please, be kind to her."

The daughter is 4 grade levels behind.  During the school year, she misses almost 40 days of school.

The next year, the district and the state look at the daughter's academic scores.  They call in the teacher to have him explain how he will rise to a higher standard of teaching, so that scores like that will not be repeated in the future.

3 comments:

Diana Dinh-Andrus said...

Part of me wants to tell you to get out while you still can. But seriously, the system needs people like you. Maybe you could climb the ladder and be more influential over the overall system? It may be that is your calling, it may not. In either case, I wish you the best of luck working with such a broken system.

Diana Dinh-Andrus said...

Also, I hate to break it to you, but there are actually five lights... #EvilGrin

Andrew said...

Thanks Michael! I think only a few people have gotten my four lights reference. :)

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