I'm interning at a Pre-K this semester. The children all are either from low income families or have special needs. Most of these kid's stories break my heart. Most of them come from good homes, just homes without a lot of resources. Some come from homes, where sadly they aren't a priority. The school actually takes parents to court to make them take their kids to school. It's hard as a mother for me to look at these kids with their sparklingly personalities and dirty clothes and not want to take them all home with me.
Even though I'm a single-parent, I've had the benefits of an education and family and support system to help me through lean times. One of the differences between my world and theirs came out today.
I was playing on the playground today with some of the kids and one of the kids said, "Let's pretend there are cops coming!" "Quick, hide your stuff!" "RUN!" "RUN!" I looked up in shock and started to laugh. One of the boys turned to me and said, "Mees QUITE! or the cops will hear you!" It was funny but heartbreakingly sad at the same time. Cole plays games where cops are the good guys and these kids already see them as the enemy.
I grabbed a football and we quickly changed games. I see a lesson plan on "heros" in our community in the very near future.
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2 comments:
Wow. Hard to imagine. Glad you are there to be a positive influence.
John has talked about that several times. SO MANY kids grow up with an "us against them" mentality towards the police. It makes his job of HELPING them unnecessarily difficult. Those poor kids don't have much of a chance. Stupid parents. I can't tell you how many times he has had to tell people how to be better parents - he does it nicely like a counselor, not condescending. It's always nice, though, to hear him talk of a kid that he actually got through to. It's really like he has to be the father figure to many of them. He really tries to help, but it's an uphill struggle.
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