Perspective

I had parent-teacher conferences this past week. I learned so much about the families and backgrounds of my students this year.

I work in West Chicago, IL. It is a great city full of history. I love driving through the town and seeing horses at one house, an amazing park across the street, and 100+ year old homes. It's great!! However, I work in the part of town that is extremely needy. Many of my families dont make the rent, move several times a year, and dont always have $$ for food. It is definitely a poorer area of town. While the area may be poor financially; they are rich in heart. When we were on strike, we had parents bringing us food, warm drinks, even thrir own home coffee pots! They organized parent meetings to support us teachers.

But, it never fails that there are some conferences that shock me. Having parents cry is nothing new. There are always a few a year. But, never have I cried due to a conference.  I had one meeting this week that absolutely broke my heart and put things into perspective for me. I had met with the mother of a sweet, gentle, well-behaved little girl. She is new to the country with the family moving here less than two years ago. I told the mom how her daughter is sweet and very well behaved, but she needed more practice with speaking English.  Overall, it was an easy conference.  Until she asked her daughters to leave the room... She then proceeded to tell me how less than 2 years ago, the daughters witnessed family members murdered right in front of them. They lived in an incredibly dangerous part of Mexico. Men would drive around in trucks, pull over to the sidewalk, and randomly execute people walking on the sidewalk.  There was more she told me and with each thing my heart broke for my student and her family.

Hearing this made me think. We take our freedoms in this country WAY too much for granted. People complain about how expensive organic food is, how schools aren't funded properly, or bitch about "Obamacare". There are people that don't know if they'll live while walking down the street. Kids in fear that their parents might not come home because they were randomly executed. Children that have to live with the horrors that they've witnessed. I have no place to complain when people are experiencing this. No matter how annoying things might be, there are people that would pray to be in my situation.  So, the next time I catch myself bitching about being inconvenienced, I need to keep my student and others like her in mind.