What Our Kids Need

When you think about the students in your class, how do you know them? Do you know them for the behaviors they show in your room or throughout the school? Do you know them for the gaps in their learning and what their data reflects? Do you know them for their lives and what they bring to school with them each and every day? Do you know them for who you think they are or do you really know each and every child in your class?

Really knowing your students means knowing their lives - their real lives - and bringing that understanding into your support and guidance for your students. It doesn't mean that you lower your expectations for them based on what you know about their lives. If anything, it means that you have consistently high expectations, but you also have to have compassion and understanding. 

This article, published on CNN, talks about children in Chicago learning to dodge bullets before they are five years old. According to the National Center for Child Poverty, 47% of American children are from low-income families and 66% of those children are African-American. The American Psychological Association  indicates that poverty has significant impacts on children in many ways, not the least of which is academic performance. 

From American Psychological Association

Educators must know and understand how they can best support children living in poverty without judgement or condemnation. Our children didn't ask to be born into poverty. Parents want what is best for their children. That leaves educators to ensure that our children have whatever they need to help them break the cycle of poverty - social emotional strategies and practice, high academic expectations, and a vision of themselves in the future where they are of value and valued. 

from Children's Defense Fund

Our kids need educators who are committed to giving them the skills they will need to break the cycle of poverty - reading, writing, and math skills that will help them be competitive, social emotional skills that will help them solve problems and cope with the challenges they face, and supports for parents and families struggling with addiction, insecure housing, unemployment or underemployment, and/or mental health issues. The field of education needs people with vision and a relentless commitment to doing whatever it takes to making the future better for our children. We need people with creativity, with compassion, with a commitment to high expectations and doing whatever it takes to help change our communities so that children do not have to grow up learning to dodge bullets before they learn how to read.