(A real student case)
You know that I work in two kinds of school, right? I teach in a private school in the morning and at a public elementary school in the afternoon. Here in Brazil, schools work one shift only, from 7am to 12 or 1 to 6pm.
Well, there I was, teaching my regular English classes when I asked my 5th grade students to draw in their notebooks their perfect Children’s Day, which will be celebrated tomorrow (in the calendar it’s Our Lady’s Day – a catholic holiday, but commercially they prefer to called it ‘Children’s Day’ and toy stores skyrocket). Anyway, after a while I started checking their lessons and there was everything: a day at Disneyland, at a circus, in a waterpark and so on. Until one of them called my attention: two stick figure girls holding hands in the woods with a giant red heart in the middle of them. I thought something that I shouldn’t so I immediately went to the student’s desk to get some explanations but before I could open my mouth she asked: “Did you like it, teacher? That’s me and my mom! Then I said: “Oh, and why in the woods? So she said: “Because my mom’s boyfriend wouldn’t find us there” and stupidly I asked: “and why with your mom?” And then my heart just broke and I hold my tears: “because during the week she works too much so she can’t spend time with me and on the weekend she has to be with her boyfriend, so she takes me to grandma and I don’t have the chance to be with her. It’s been like this since my dad died.”
No mom, no dad. You may say that there are worse cases, and I believe it. In the afternoon I work in a totally different world just a mile away, therefore I can tell how worse it can get. But in that specific moment, with all those wealth and well-cared kids, I wouldn’t ever imagined a child so emotionally abandoned. They are all so happy and glamorous and rich and perfect. Not her. She is sad. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to figure out sooner. How blameworthy I was. Never had I felt so ashamed for not knowing before.
I tried to convince myself that as an English teacher who walks into that classroom Wednesdays and Fridays for 50 minutes only (students in Brazil have English subject twice a week in their schedule), it is quite normal not to notice some situations among the students. Even though, I should’ve kwnon.
Happy Children’s Day!