We Are Teachers
A poem by Kyle Harris
We are teachers, great disseminators of knowledge.
We are nurses, healing scrapes and sickness.
We are counselors, mediating disputes between our students.
We are social workers, protecting and supporting those at risk.
We are parents, the children becoming our own.
We see their triumphs and trials, they see our highs and lows.
We see them grow, as they lead us to grow.
And every day we must struggle, learn, and grow for them
Because just being âreadyâ isnât good enough.
Because they donât need us âreadyâ to teach when they arenât ready to learn.
Because it doesnât matter if you know your times tables,
If you donât know if youâre getting food at home.
Because ancient history doesnât matter when today is another fight to survive.
Because slavery and civil rights donât mean anything
When youâre still oppressed.
Or when they already know that the color of oneâs skin
Determines the color of their clip chart.
Because itâs hard to teach keeping your hands to yourself in school
When you are beaten and molested at home.
Because children who are loved at home come to learn
When children who arenât come for love.
Because the kids who need that love the most show it in the most unloving ways.
Because our children donât need us to be âreadyâ when they tell us about their pain.
They just need us to be there.
Because no student should ever be a âproblem.âÂ
Itâs easier to teach the obedient ones who donât challenge you
Than it is to love the ones who wonât conform.
Why âcatch a bubbleâ when you have your own truth to speak?
Why silence your student but expect them to find their own voice?
Where will we find critical thinkers, when our âbest studentsâ donât question the status quo?
This isnât why we teach.
We are individuals, and we teach individuals.
We donât produce identical students from identical classrooms.
Because at the end of the day, we donât teach standards.
We teach students.
There are days where we fail, but that doesnât excuse us from giving our all.
We are human, too.
We are counselors. We are social workers. We are nurses. We are parents.
We are teachers.
