As Chris taught it...

l WANT

TO KNOW

IF THERE'S A GHETTO

IN HEAVEN

My literacy students are anything but dull! They make me laugh everyday which is great because I am also reminded regularly what other teachers are saying about them.
"You actually WANT to teach literacy?...That class only exists for the students who aren't old enough to drop out yet...I can't believe you are going to teach them Shakespeare! They'll never be able to understand him...Thank you for having them in your class because that means they are not in mine."
The fact that these conversations are happening at all infuriates me!

I'm writing this blog not to tell you what I'm teaching them, but to tell you what they're teaching me.

When I told the students we were going to analyze poetry, they revolted. Fortunately, they listened once I promised that we would study TuPac's lyrics. To start, I gave them many different ways of dissecting poetry to try and figure out what the author is talking about. Then I put a short, simple poem on the overhead. As a class we decided to focus on defining words to see how the author is using them. Of course, they chose to look more closely at the word GHETTO and HEAVEN.

They had many definitions.
GHETTO:
poverty
hard knock life
poor
people on the streets
run down houses
hard life
gangster
drugs dealers
alcohol
And then Chris stopped and said: Miss, why do all of these things have to be so negative. To me, it's part of life. I think that the most important thing to remember about the ghetto that it is defined by the people on the outside looking in. To me, it's my family and I love it the same way everyone else loves their family.

I still have goosebumps and I can't get Chris' words out of my head. Just wait, there's more.

HEAVEN:
Where we go when we die
A place where we don't hurt anymore
A celebration
We will see all those we have lost
Whatever we want it to be
Happiness

"Good class! Now, just by discussing what we know about these two words, what do you think this poem is about?"

Before I tell you what Chris' last response was, I want to tell you how I interpreted this poem. Take a moment to do so yourself if you would like.
Life on Earth is hard and we cannot ever expect it to be completely easy. Fortunately, we get to move on to a place where it will all be better. When I was a child, my parent's read me a book very often that said, "It will all come out in the wash." (I still want that on my headstone!) When I leave this earthly life, I look forward to being washed clean and living
Happily Ever After!

Chris' answer: Miss, I think you got it wrong. AWESOME CHRIS!! WHAT DO YOU SAY IT MEANS? Well, on this earth I have people that live this hard life with me. We fight battles together. We dodge bullets together. We have to say no to the same drugs. We've lost friends and family and held each other up through it all. In heaven, I want a ghetto there too. I want to know that we will all be together again, but this time we only celebrate each other and we don't have to worry about the hard parts of life. We lived through pain together and we have earned peace and happiness together.

Now, I do have to say that Chris didn't say it exactly this way. I believe that if you could have heard his words you would have cried with me after that class too.

Chris taught me so much without even trying. The next blog will be my interpretation of the difference of my answer and his answer.

Remind me again why anyone would give up on these kids?
lovemaura