Fairy Princesses

I think I like the prom where I teach more than the prom I went to in '99.

I like it more than my own because I know more people there that I like. The food is better and it is free for me. On a less superficial level, I also like it because of the kids that are there. I suppose in a lot of ways it is a chance for them to be someone outside of themselves even if just for one night. I flipped through my pictures (I'm not posting them here for obvious reasons). On the surface they are just a bunch of good looking (though sometimes awkward) kids. Their stories are not so good looking. They have made it this far though, a few weeks from graduating (or maybe it will be August) and that by itself is a miracle.

There's kids who are permanently physically effected by their parent's drug habits; homeless children whose parents have left to go back to their own country, there's mothers and future mothers as well as fathers. There are children who have survived civil wars and witnessed massacres, children who have been in and out of CPS. Those who didn't evacuate early from hurricanes and found shelter in the Superdome. Children that work till 2AM and come to school at 8:30. Those are just the ones that let me take their pictures. There are some that are the first in their families to go to college and some we are thrilled will graduate from high school.

I shouldn't call them children, they are hardly naive or dependent.

These are what has made my teaching career a learning experience. I hope that I'm not walking away from them, but finding a different way to be a part of their lives and continue to learn from them. I wish that I knew what that will look like.