Carrying Hearts
Their binders are going home today. I hesitate to send some home, wondering what their parents will think when they see all the unfinished papers, the ungraded tests, the projects we never got around to finishing. I watch my students shove them into their backpacks and, as tends to be my motto these days, decide to let it go. The cubbies are lined with piles of unclaimed items: headphones and keychains and earrings without a pair. Hoodies are hung on the hooks that, despite how many times we've asked parents to label the tags with sharpie, have no home. I'm so tired. Tired of getting to school so early in the morning. Tired of feeling like an underpaid babysitter. Tired of trying to get students to still care about school when their neighborhood friends are all on summer break, days of pools and parks and sunshine stretching ahead. And we're still here, in this windowless room, running around like madmen. It feels silly to be here, but it's the hard reality of our year...