School is hard right now. Every thing my body feels makes me wonder, "Do I have a disease that kills people?" But I can't stay home with each thing I feel. I'd be home more than I'd be at school. My colleagues would have to take on my classes because who wants to be a substitute teacher in a petri dish? So, I clench my teeth, go to work, and get a headache from clenching my teeth, or is it a headache from COVID? Then I listen as one student asks if she can take five minutes to cry, as another starts breathing rhythmically because she has fallen asleep, as another teaches me about her mom's mental illness, as another tells me that black is the ugliest color and she is black, and as another updates me on her dad's brain cancer. I'm honored they trust me with their hurt. There's just so much hurt and fear. We are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
You know who you are. Sioux Falls Lincoln 11.5.19 Sioux Falls Roosevelt 11.12.19 Sioux Falls Lincoln 10.31.20 If you want to be a teacher, prepare to let your heart break. Prepare to sit with your students' fears of a pandemic and discrimination and riots and elections. Prepare to sit with your own. Prepare to cry with your student who has endured painful rejection from peers. Prepare to sit with your student who has endured painful rejection from adults. Prepare to refer your student to a counselor. Prepare to refer yourself to a counselor. Prepare to watch your student leave school in handcuffs. Prepare to pray that your hospitalized student will live. Prepare to respond because your student's loved one died. Prepare to hug your student's mom because your student died. If you want to be a teacher, prepare to let your heart break and then realize somehow you were made for this. Photo by Brian Asare on Unsplash Gina Benz teaches AP students, EL students, and future tea