I keep thinking over and over again about how I see a slice of humanity every time I step into my classroom. For 45 minutes at a time, I share lives with 110 other human beings. I'm not sure if my students' lives necessarily represent those of the whole human race, but even though they are 13 and 14 years old, they face the challenges of the world: sickness, pain, death, violence, drug abuse, crime. Usually I feel pretty unaware of the suffering in the world-- or at least I feel like it's far away. But ever since I started teaching, I feel it near.
They have taught me so much. One of my students' mom passed away last week. I didn't know what to do or say, especially when she walked into class for the first time after it happened. But her guy friend, who sits a couple desks behind her just said, "Hey Cherie (name has been changed), Mr. Soandso is really mad at your class for..... blah blah." And they went on to have a friendly conversation about guitar class. I just watched and thought, "Wow! He knows exactly how to act--NORMAL!" And yet, I, a supposedly older and wiser 24-year-old, just stood there awkwardly.
It's just amazing to me how I really do see the whole spectrum of emotion, maturity, and life's problems in my little Payson classroom.
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