Thoughts

It was great going home and visiting friends and family for the past two weeks. On Friday when we got into town I visited St. Gregory and saw many of my students and families from the past years. The hugs and the squeals I received when I walked in were the best Christmas present I received this year. St. Gregory is a world away from my new Unity family. It's sometimes hard to believe that schools can be so different. I have had the privilege of working in two very different settings. Parochial to public, affluent to Title 1. I am constantly comparing my former students to my current students. The differences of the academic abilities of the two groups are staggering. Granted, I work with kids that are working under grade level, but still. I am constantly asking myself why is this. Why were my first graders able to write better sentences than my third graders here. How is it that there are third graders who can hardly add simple addition facts on their fingers? I wish I knew.

It's been observed that the educational achievement of one's mother is the number one predictor of a child's success and achievement in school. The teen pregnancy rate here in Troup County is higher than the national average. These young moms aren't necessarily bad mothers, it's just that they are kids themselves. The question is what do you do? I think what many of us is judge. We can come up with a list a hundred pages long describing why: laziness, drugs, welfare, our Christian" nation values are being rejected, we have turn our backs on God... But haven't we ourselves turned our own backs on God by ignoring those who suffer around us.

We move away from the "bad" parts of town. We put our children in private schools. While trying to insulate ourselves from any appearance of evil, we have forgotten about those who don't have that luxury, the ability to move on to something better. But imagine if instead of moving away to private schools, we partnered with and joined those schools with the neediest kids. I think it would make a difference in our public schools. . Maybe instead of moving away from the "bad" neighborhoods we need to move back in. Just think what could happen if your family could become a role model for some of these extremely young families. Think about the opportunities a stay at home mom would have living in an neighborhood with young mothers, young teen mothers. Kids need role models, but sometimes parents do to.