My Other Kids.....

These are my new children. I admittedly have been struggling this year with my new assignment and the new curriculum. I was so comfortable teaching Food and Nutrition. I have moved into an area that is not totally comfortable yet. I am learning...along with my kids.

We traveled together to the University of North Texas. It was an attempt to expose these AVID freshmen to a college campus..to motivate and encourage. These are children of parents who may not have a high school education and surely not a college degree.

They loved it. It was a chance to picture what the future might hold. For a moment they were transported to something that could be possible..we can only hope.

Shortly after we returned we completed a writing assignment. I wanted to get to know these kids better. I wanted to know them on a more personal level. I wanted to know what went on in their head. I did not know what I was going to discover. It was a simple assignment. Complete this format with your own thoughts. I am, I wonder and so on. Fifty verses and fifty sad stories. These smiling, seemingly confident kids have hurt in their hearts I can not even grasp. It was hard to pick one to share.

I am a sad little girl in this depressing place called the world

I wonder if I am ever going to see my father

I hear the screams and cries of a hopeless girl

I see tears fall from my big brown eyes

I want to be able to close my eyes without worry

I am a sad little girl in this depressing place called the world.

I feel sorrow and depression

I touch the hearts of others but cannot touch my own

I worry that I may not wake up to see tomorrow

I cry out for someone to help me

I am a sad little girl in this depressing place called the world.

I understand that no one can be perfect

I say I know and understand when I really don't

I dream one day that my dad will walk through the door and call me his little girl

I try not to cry when people ask about him

I hope one day to meet him face to face

I am a sad little girl in this depressing place called the world.

Tonight my heart is the one that hurts. How do you help these children?