My New Temporary Family

My new job is pretty cool. I went to the unemployment office a few weeks ago and looked through thousands of job postings, then continued on until I had seen every job in Massachusetts that was posted in every magazine, website, or newspaper I could find. I ended up sending out one e-mail to contact the one job I wanted. I then promptly forgot what I had applied for.

Two weeks passed when I got a phone call from a school that specializes in dealing with social and emotional middle schoolers. I wasn't sure why I applied for this particular job until I showed up to see the place. Trying to describe this place would take way too long, but it was kind of like a big family atmosphere.

Many of my students are orphans, a couple have even had their adoptive parents die. Some missed years of school because they just slipped through the cracks. Some are academically inclined, but most have very low self esteem when it comes to school and life in general. A couple have spent their formative years as the unwanted children their parents couldn't handle, so they ended up in the custody of various organizations.

It's not the hardest job in the world, in fact it's pretty basic, I just need to know how to teach Middle School subjects like Math and English. I can't believe I'm getting paid enough to make a decent living doing something that enjoy, but I do. In fact, I really think I get more out of this than my students do. On a good day, I go home knowing I made difference in a place I was desperately needed, on a bad day, I know I'm going in the next day with a chance to make things better.

I've had some pretty crazy times as a teacher. Two years ago, one of my former students committed suicide, and still I don't how to get over that because it was a student that I had made a personal project of and we made a lot of progress. A year after I changed jobs, he was crashing from pharmaceuticals and his father was a gun collector. Another student went from getting expelled (before I met him) to making a great turn-a-round and getting to graduation. Since I left town, he's been wandering around nearly comatose. I take at least part of the blame for each, it was my job to help them to adulthood and I know there are teachers who would have worked miracles.

There have been miracles I have helped happen, like pushing the Sudanese refugees all the way to college, and miracles I have witnessed, like the angry teenager who was living in the projects. She got incurable cancer, had it go into remission, and now she goes to college and helps other girls who are just like she was five years ago.

The biggest lesson I have learned from teaching is, if you treat someone with respect and love, they will respond with respect and love. If people aren't treating you with respect and love, you may be doing something wrong.

Obviously, I will have a million tales of interactions with my new temporary family, and maybe I'll blog a few in the near future.