PD days sometimes suck

but today was worse than normal. not because we were told to reflect on "what is rigor instruction?" or "what the children is doing," which made it bad, but because we talked a little about some of the sensitive situations our kids are in.

so student from last year's dad died last week. another kid i know well witnessed a double homicide last week on his block. man shot two guys at point blank range. a few other kids are on house arrest for attempted murder. there's a 7th grade boy who supposedly raped an 8 year old girl. the list goes on and on.

it is so unbelievably painful to look at these kids, the ones with the the house arrest anklets on, the ones about whom you just know stuff, and the ones who look absolutely normal. it is beyond me to even begin to conceive of what their lives are like and what they deal with each day.

and somehow, amist all this hurt and pain and sorrow and evil, our school can still, sometimes, be a light. a place of joy. the kids come in all hurting and angry, but after about an hour, there are smiles all over the place. in their work they put aside all the crap at home and ask questions like "how come we know for sure that the iceman was real?" they write letters to their teachers convincing them to take the class on trips and play more games in school. they laugh when their classmate's pants fall off and they beg for candy at the end of the day. like every normal kid.

they are so resilient. but i wish they didn't have to be.