I've Got Your Back

Week One:

Only four days into school, and all the teachers who gathered at the weekly watering hole agreed that it seemed a year already. "A four-day sauna!" I added. None of the rooms have air conditioning (except the administrative offices and library, which doesn't help teacher/admin relations during 90 degree days). But there was laughter, and commiseration and even some defining of terms for us by the health ed teacher. "By the way, what does "tea bagging mean," I ask? The kid who said it in my room today has already begun his wayward ways.

You learn all sorts of things in high school, sometimes the least being prescribed curriculum. The catty girls have their claws out. The footballers are proud and the outsiders come to my room after school for a photo shoot. The kids who feel they can't keep up academically defend themselves by being rude. Already some move toward trouble. I will arrange a montage of photos on my wall when I have time, of all the students, all mixed-up into one homogenious group. I can't seem to kick my egalitarian hopefulness. Call me naive.

Students tell other students that they are stupid, and say it was just a joke. Some are bold and brassy, pushing their weight around and demanding attention. Others sit quietly, watching. Kids who have never felt success in school fumble blindly toward a new beginning. A kid tells me that no one likes him.

I find myself standing at the front of the classroom looking out at all of them. "If someone is mean to you, I will stop it. I expect you to be kind to everyone and I want you to tell me if someone is not kind to you. In this room everyone is equal. I've got your back."