Tag: education

I Love to Teach!

Dear Ravi,

I am back where my heart belongs, a Title I school. Daddy and I have begun tutoring reading at a local elementary school supported by St. Clement’s. This is now our Tuesday and Thursday morning gig. Right now, I have students from kindergarten to grade 3. Some are fluent readers; others are just learning letters and sight words. Next week I get to meet not only with them but with a 4th/5th grade split class for a book group. I can’t wait. This group loves books and loves to discuss books. What more could I ask?

With Halloween coming up, and yesterday being dress as your favorite character day, the energy in the school was off the charts! Wisely, the district decided not have school today but have a trunk or treat instead. As a teacher, I heartily approve this move. Teaching right before Halloween is next to impossible. The students come in already hopped up on sugar and proceed to bounce and boogie their way through the rest of the day. The best a teacher can do is read some slightly spooky stories out loud, have extra recesses to run off the wiggles, and show a few videos. Learning can resume in early November when the kids come off of their sugar high and sleep deprivation from late night trick or treating. Then, if a teacher is lucky s/he can have 3 good weeks of teaching until Thanksgiving, and then it is mad dash into Christmas, Chanukah, and Kwanza. One does not really hit a good rhythm again until January when there are very few out of school vacations. The winter is a good time to hunker down and really attack those basic learning skills, or better yet, those higher learning skills.

As a teacher, I always dreaded the 10:30 am crash I witnessed with my students. Kids usually came in without breakfast and by mid-morning were famished and in no state to learn anything. You could literally see their blood sugar crashing through the soles of the feet and their moods quickly followed. I learned to have emergency snacks on hand just to combat the midmorning blues. Shortly into this tutoring gig I could feel myself gearing up for the midmorning crash. To my amazement it did not happen! Kids kept right on learning and there were no major mood swings or non-compliance. Then it dawned on me, all students K through 12 get free breakfast and lunch. No one is coming to class hungry or unsure of where their next meal will come from. Doors to the elementary school open at 7:15 am and the students know that a hot breakfast and caring teachers and aids will greet them. If there is still time between breakfast and the start of school they can help out by running errands, emptying the trash and recycling, or just curling up with a good book. I thank our governor, Tim Walz, for the free breakfast and lunch initiative. Before he was a governor, he was a high school teacher and a football coach. He knew that no child could learn when they felt hungry or unsafe. Soon after the initiative started teachers noticed a trend. There were less students tardy or absent. There were fewer behavioral problems. In short, it was just easier to teach. This does not mean that teaching become all sunshine and rainbows, but it did mean that teaching at least became possible. So, the old adage is true, breakfast really is the most important meal of the day!

So, my dear son, where I am going with all of this? I am thrilled to be back in the classroom. I love the energy of the school, the endurance of the teachers and paras, being able to pass my love of reading on to other children. In a way, Bridge View was a trend setter. Your school had free breakfast and lunch for all students before this became a state mandate. What I also love about this mandate is that all the local schools provide free lunches when there is a lengthy vacation, like winter, spring, or summer break. Often parents only have one meal a day for their kids in the family budget and this really takes the load off of them. As usually, we will reach out to Bridge View and Focus Beyond to see what families we can help over Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Boo, it is 4 days before Election Day, and our country and our state have a lot riding on these elections. The polls look good and in favor of the Democratic party right now, but they also did in 2016 and 2024. This is not the time for our country to relax. I implore all of our readers, to make a plan to get out and vote. Vote early if you can, we did and then make a plan to help others get to the voting booth on November 3. The polls are open from 8am to 8pm. Even if you get in line at 7:59 pm the day of, you still have the right to vote. Do not let anyone turn you away. Ravi voted for your rights in 2020. Do your part. Be a good human and vote for basic human rights and decency. Do it for yourself. Do it for Ravi. Be a good human and I will talk to you on the flip side. Best, Harriet.

No Guns

Dear Ravi,

I was a student teacher when the Columbine School shooting took place. I was a seasoned teacher when the Sandy Hook massacre occurred. I was at the tail end of my teaching career when our school had lockdown drills and I had corral 15 kindergarteners into the bathroom, turn off the lights and tell them to be quiet as mice. Ravi, I was trained to be a teacher, not at martyr. Gun violence punctuated my entire teaching career. I never grew numb to it; it was one heartache after another. My biggest fear for you was that someone would open fire on your school. Bridge View School is a beautiful, welcoming community. Huge glass sliding doors lead into the sunny hallways. A secretary sits at the desk to check visitors in or say hi to passing students. All the staff know all of the students and their families. For 13 years, that school was your home away from home and you loved it. I was so scared for you and your classmates. You would not understand a lockdown drill. You probably didn’t even know what a gun looked like or why someone would use one. Over the years, the school eventually moved to a safer model. All teachers had passes to get in and out of the building. The doors were locked from the inside and only a faculty member could buzz a visitor indoors. Even that did not curtail my anxiety. I wanted to shield you and your classmates from every possibility of danger.

Last week, the dreaded headlines appeared again. This time a violent teen attacked an elementary school in Oregon. Specifically, the shooter targeted a special needs classroom. It was the nightmare of every parent come true. A teacher and several children died. Another teacher and children were injured. I think of the teacher who was slaughtered. She was 25 years old and at the beginning of the career. Like me at that age she was bright, motivated, and ready to change to world for her students. She loved her job. Maybe for her it was not just a job, but a calling. She and several of her innocent students never made it home that day. I am both heartbroken and raging. Those students deserved an education and they deserved to live their lives without fear or trauma.

Ravi, here is the part that I really do not understand. The shooter was a former student of that school and also had special needs. He was 16, his life just beginning to open before him. For some reason, his mother gave him a gun for his 16th birthday. I don’t know if he had any gun safety classes. I don’t know why he was even carrying a gun on an ordinary weekday morning, or why he returned to the school, to the very classroom, where he was nurtured and taught. Ravi, I do not understand. I do understand this much; children should not have access to guns. Guns should only be in the hands of sane adults who have had more than adequate gun safety training. They are useful if you are a farmer or rancher protecting your animals or your flock. They are not useful in the hands of special needs teens. I am also afraid that this shooting will give the public and excuse to blame the special needs community for this tragedy.

So, my son, my heart is heavy this week. Gun violence punctuated my entire teaching career. It made me fear for the lives of you and Mercury. We do not own any guns, never have, never will. I can’t comprehend why your grandparents are lifelong members of the NRA. The membership was their first anniversary present to each other. Our society, especially those who govern, have grown numb to gun violence. They follow each tragedy with a canned remark, “thoughts and prayers” and then refuse to pass any reasonable gun laws. I will go to church this morning and light yet another candle for the souls of those whom we have lost. I will continue to write and speak out for saner gun laws. I will speak for you and for the students like you who left school, not on a bus, but in a body bag. I love you and miss you. Mom, who is very sad.