a whole child

I am taking a challenge by my neighbor friend, Angela, to do a 30 minute post. That's all I have, 30 minutes to pour my heart on the page. To tell what I think, how I feel, or what has happened in our lives. If you want to know more visit the blog, Steady Mom.

Work
I am a mom, I love being a mom, I just listened to Jamison read his take home book, but I was at work. I love Keira, she is a light in my life but I was at work when I helped her solve her frustrations with words, not tears and the screams that she has been doing lately.

Work to me is great kids. It is happy kids, funny kids, smart kids, confident kids, kids our families are proud of, kids we can count on, kids who matter, kids who will not be overlooked or forgotten. My work is a whole child. Not a kid who only does well on the MSP (our state test). While I would love to "prove" my work to the world (at least my taxpayers) there are so many more important things than a number, a score, a reading level, an assessment. The whole child.

I love my work. I love to go to work. I love to be challenged. I love coming home and doing my work too but I wonder sometimes if I will ever not "work". I think the answer is no. As long as I am a mom and even after I am gone my lessons, beliefs, and lives I have touched will continue on. I am giving to the world in my work and I don't get a break. Ok, well, I get a break but children are everywhere, children are all around us and we need to work for all of them.

Think about that unhappy child, think about that hungry child, think about the excited ones, and the confident ones, and the shy ones, and the non committed ones. They all matter. I love my children with a love I never knew existed. With a passion so great I could cry thinking about them. They are my babies. Every kid is someone's baby. That punk kid who walked by you in the store or that kind one who said hello to you....THEY ALL MATTER.

Can I take some home with me, please? Can I take home that kid who feels unloved, unimportant, excluded? Can I take home the kid who is excited, wants to learn, and is passionate? What are we doing for our children?

Here is a sad story. My school district is diverse. We have very affluent schools and struggling schools. The affluent schools have too many parents who want to get involved and the teachers complain. The poor schools have no one. If we want to help our children why are we only wiling to go to our kids' school to help. Aren't kids kids? Don't they all matter? Then why when families are asked to go to the poor schools to do art with the kids do these "involved parents" refuse? Are we really a society who deems kids not worthy?

I have frustrations at work. We all have bad days, but my work matters. Everyday I will wake up, think about the kids and their future and make sure my kids know they matter to me.