CHANGE IN DIRECTION

It has been SO LONG.

The reason for that has been that I have not been working directly with the children for a while now. My job at Little Lights has been almost entirely on the graphic design side of things, so I have not been able to go to programs. While the office work is interesting, it is not anything that warrants a blog. And so this space has been unused.

But NOW, I am heading back into the trenches. Over the past 6 months, God has been very clear in telling me that my true calling (it sounds so corny...but it's the only phrase I can think of) lies in early-elementary education. I want very much to be a kindergarten teacher. Because I do not have a degree in education, however, I cannot get a job as a head teacher. My options are to work in public schools as an assistant teacher and work towards certification, or go back to graduate school and get a degree so that I can teach in a private school. I am loathe to take on more debt right now, so I am going the former route. I am thrilled to say that I'll be serving as an assistant teacher in a pre-k class at a charter school located in the Congress Heights area of Southeast DC. The children I'll be working with are, I expect, very much like the kids at Little Lights. They live in an area of high crime and drug-use, and many have at least 1 parent who is completely absent in their lives.

I find it somewhat interesting that this is where I ended up. To be perfectly honest, when I first started my job search, I really wanted to work in a private school. I didn't want the drama and the difficulties that came with working with inner-city kids. Dealing with major emotional issues, severe family dysfunction, and poverty is, in a word, exhausting. (I can't imagine how exhausting it must be for the kids themselves, many of whom do not get to go home to a calm, safe environment to recover, like I do.) So I looked into all sorts of assistant teacher and intern positions in private schools, both in the DC area and in other states, but didn't even get a response or acknowledgment that they had received my resume. Then I interviewed at this school, and the principle hired me in the next few days. I accepted, because I knew that I had to get my foot in the door, and this might be my only opportunity to actually be teaching at this point. Since then, however, I have thought more about it, and realized that it is not an accident that no other schools showed interest in me...that this was the one that opened its doors.

I came to the realization that God might want to keep me in the inner-city. He might think that's where I can be most useful. He might, in other words, disagree with me about where I should end up. I'm not sure if that is the case, but all signs seem to be pointing in that direction.

I have spent a little time at the school so far, and from what I've seen, they do a very good job of mitigating the drama that is inherent in so many of the students' lives. The hallways are not hectic, there is no yelling or screaming (unlike some other public schools I have been in in SE). I think this is one of the most important things an inner-city school can do. Before these children can even think about learning, they need to feel safe.

I start my job in August. In July, the principal has invited me to go to Cleveland for the Imagine Schools conference. I hope to update this site regularly once I start working with the kids, as I know I will have many stories to tell, and many prayer requests to share.