Summer Reading for Parents

(VIA)

 
Rarely do I sit down and read a book in one night, usually it takes me two. But this last one I picked up, I did exactly that.  It was that good.  What can I say, I'm a fast reader and can't put it down once I get into it.  This past Monday, browsing through my local library (which I do from time to time because I'm a nerd), this book just caught my eye.  And yes, I do normally judge a book by its' cover.  Maybe it's all the "back to school" on the brain, but when I saw this journal of a first year teacher, I knew I had an opportunity to be a fly on the wall.  This takes you into a Chicago inner city classroom  and lets you into the life and mind of a 24 year old shiny new teacher who faces new challenges every day.  She hates her boss, has a love/hate relationship with the students, and is very frank about it all. 

She really hooked me in with the following paragraph.   

"I feel a certain ill ease about the human race and its unpredictable nature, its folly, its abuse of children.  I look around and see that even grown-ups are really children, making mistakes and needing love.  Does being wrong make you weaker?  Does being needy make you weaker?  I find myself praying, wishing for God, wishing for someone who sees everything that's happening, someone who cares what's happening.  Maybe it's because it's so hard being the only grown-up in the room all day long." -Esme Raji Codell

We all know being a grown-up is hard work.  Being the only grown-up in a classroom full of kids is even harder work.  Being a grown-up who has to deal with all of the parents of those kids, not to mention the bureaucracy of  their administration and county boards....for $30,000 a year???  It's a wonder our teachers don't all plea insanity. 

May God Bless them all as they head back into classrooms this month.