Thoughts

A letter from andi

by Andi Johnson kcmo teacher

I am sure that I have told you that I was called to be a teacher in the KCMO School District while I was still a member at COR. Dr. Taylor, the superintendent at the time, had been making the rounds to suburban churches pleading with congregations for qualified teachers to give up their current positions and to please work in the city schools. I could hear the desperation in his voice and knew that Dr. Taylor's visit and my being in that particular service was no accident. God was calling me. I had felt unfulfilled in my career for quite some time and I was eager to work with children that needed me more that the affluent suburban students. I left church that Sunday, applied for a job on Monday, and was hired on Wednesday.

I knew that I would be dealing with families with situations that I had only seen on television or read about in the paper. The stories that I came home each night and shared with my family at dinner were stories that they just couldn't believe. My sons had no idea that there were actually children the same age as them that came to school hungry, without clothing, dirty, often sick, and that on occasion were not picked up after school until six or seven in the evening.

My first position in the KCMO district was teaching fourth grade. I had taught 4th grade previously in St. Louis for 8 years and was very familiar with the curriculum, so I was excited and eager to begin my new position. The curriculum was a breeze, the students and adjusting to my new culture was not. I remember quite vividly my first rude awakening to the extreme poverty and the struggles my students dealt with on a daily basis.

Diamond was a handsome, smart, eager to please student. His reading was below grade level, he had had several behavior issues that had required him to attend an alternative school for a time, and he had become a "labeled" student because of his past history. Anyway, Diamond had been showing growth in my class, was staying out of trouble, but after some time, he began to be tardy, come to school tired and often fell asleep as soon as he walked in the door. This new behavior had become a pattern quickly. One morning he came to school an hour late and just stood at my desk and cried. Because he was late he had missed breakfast (that the school provides) and he was hungry, very hungry. Lunch wasn't any time soon. I tried to console him the best I could. After a time, he went to his desk and went to sleep. I woke him up when it was time for lunch. I stayed in the cafeteria during lunch to observe Diamond, and what I saw still makes me cry today. After he had finished his tray he picked it up and licked it clean. He then proceeded to lick every other student's tray to get any extra crumbs or morsels he could scrape off. He was that hungry. I decided that from then on, I would always have food in my desk available for hungry children. Students can't learn if they are hungry, behavior problems increase if students are hungry, you can't function if you are hungry. I later learned that the reason Diamond was chronically tardy and tired was because he had to take care of his younger siblings all night while his mother turned tricks in her bedroom. He was also responsible for letting the men in and out of the house.

The stories I could share about the poverty I have seen at school is at times, unimaginable, but all very, very true. I am fortunate and grateful that I have been able to take sack lunches from N2N to send home with children that have nothing to eat over the weekend.

If there were answers on how to end the plight of poverty, we would no longer have the problem. I know that all I can do is take care of the students I have today, instill in them the love and importance of learning, and encourage parents to work with their children each and every night with reading and writing. Being literate is the number one goal I have for my students. Reading and writing effectively, I feel, are one of the many skills that could possibly end poverty.