The other week during Professional Development Day, our keynote speaker, Doug Dvorak, talked about keeping our problems in perspective. He called our issues "high class problems," and while I was a little uncomfortable with the term since I do not, in any way, shape, or form, consider myself to be "high" class (as my predilections for zombies and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese illustrate), I had my own moment of perspective the other day.
I was meeting my students for one-on-one conferences to talk about their essay drafts. One of my student's essays was the story of why he has decided to become a police officer, and one of his reasons was that he and his mother's house had recently been burglarized by their neighbor. I asked him what had been stolen and he said they'd taken $20. I replied, "Well, $20 isn't a huge amount of money, but any kind of a theft feels like a big violation."
And this is what he said: "Actually, twenty dollars is a lot of money for me and my mom. She's not working, so that was a big deal to us."
And I wanted to kick myself.
I live in a two-income household. My husband and I have one car, no children, and not even a pet since our dog passed away last March. I have a good health insurance plan and never have to worry about putting food on my table. And last month I spent about $20 on lip gloss alone (that's not an exaggeration).
So even though I try to understand that our students struggle to pay for not only their tuition but for their textbooks, flash drives, notebooks, folders, and pens as well, it's sometimes hard to see beyond my own relatively comfortable situation.
Our students struggle, sometimes, to pay their rent and their car insurance, their utility and credit card bills, and in the most unfortunate situations they cannot overcome those struggles, and they wind up homeless. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's 2009 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, 22.3% of all sheltered homeless were between the ages of 18 and 30. Those could be our students. And even if our students don't have to suffer this fate, some of them still live in neighborhoods where they could be robbed by the person living next door.
After having this foot-in-mouth experience, I know that I must be more mindful of what I say, what I think, and how I approach my students and their lives.
Have you ever had a "perspective" moment with a student?
For other reading, see the June 2012 report from the National Center for Homeless Education and the Huffington Post article that decodes some of it.
