Strength

One of my students ran out of class today to take a phone call. Two minutes later, I walk out and see her sobbing on the floor in the hallway. I sit down next to her and ask her what was going on. Sobbing, she informs me that she just got a call from her mom telling her that her brother was just shot and died in the hospital. 


After a few minutes, she picks herself up, and tells me she wants to go to class. Rejecting an offer to go home, she says that she wants to go to class because she didn't want to miss any work. It amazes me how much strength this 14 year-old has, and how much strength all my 14 year-olds have. What's sad is that this isn't the first case, and it won't be the last. My kids have been through broken families, physical abuse, homelessness, constant violence, and death after death of their loved ones. Many of them have lost everything, but they have shown a resiliency and strength that I had never seen before. They have an unmatched capacity to forgive; they have faced tremendous challenges, and have had the strength and perseverance to get through all of them. These are children living in the midst of unthinkable violence, but they want to learn. They have a thirst for knowledge, and they are crying out for teachers who care and will teach them what they need to know. They are here to learn, and for some of them, they are doing it because this is how they are going to make their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, watching from Heaven, proud. 


My students may act out, or talk in class, but deep down inside them, they have faced so much brokenness and have risen from them stronger. I was reminded today how much they deserved to be admired and respected for this resiliency that I didn't have at their age, and that I don't even know if I have now. If I ever needed motivation to teach these kids, this is it. They deserve it.