Of all the things that worry me about being a teacher, the “first day” is definitely in the running for first place. It seems that everybody around me is really confident about it, but this chapter is definitely calming and relieving in that it shows people, who seem like really good teachers, having the same fears and worries that I do. A lot of the teachers in the book made decisions that I would have seen as mistakes, such as showing up on a student’s doorstep. These things took a lot of guts, but I was glad to see that these issues worked out in the end. I have a tendency to see critical make-or-break moments where there really aren’t any, and it’s good to know that there is enough leniency to account for not everybody being perfect.
That being said, there was a positively immense amount of courage in the chapter – an amount of courage that I’m not sure I have. Perhaps I’ve just never been in a situation where I need to step up the way these teachers did, but that is one nagging thing in my mind. I’ve worked with children who had particular issues with racism, heterosexism, sexism, etc. at summer camp, but that has been easier to help with because I live with the campers for two weeks with no negative outside influences. I imagine it is heartbreaking to feel like you’re making a breakthrough in the classroom, then the school bell rings and you watch them go off into what could be a bad world. I guess it just comes down to doing what you can while you can.
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