Students are without their safe haven this school year
There are children being beaten and broken,
What can I do to stop their abuser. There are children thirsty and starving,
What can I do to alleviate their hunger.
Every year those doors open up, and pull students away from their reality at home for 8 or more hours a day.
Those doors won’t open this year
There is a child somewhere with a horrid life story, finding love in a teachers arm or only getting food from the lunch ladies hands. That could only think in peace in a guidance counselor's office, which is why they stayed two hours after the last bell rang.
The displacement of students around this nation--in horrible situations, facing what may be deemed as child abuse, only found peace and hope inside the walls of a school.
No matter how much they clowned in a class or how loud their silence was when a question was asked of them, a number went home to a world so distant from what life should be, that they have yet to learn to cope with anything.
To some, school is nothing, of no importance, they lack the means to understand that it is a safe haven.
At times when all you can do is cry there’s a teacher standing by
I know it might seem insufficient to base schools reopening on certain circumstances of home problems. But maybe, there's that one child that can change the world in the best way, but in the dark of night they're about to take their own life.
Then there are those who deem school is but a place to tell you what, when, and how to do something.
Yes, school causes anxiety and depression to most with the tests and quizzes put on every desk.
But it would be an insufficient argument to ignore that school is a safe haven for someone. Yes, I dislike to say it. It means that school is so intertwined
with a child's everyday life. It means it's one of the most important factors in growing up.
The teacher that said you were never enough rings true to you still, but you can also hear the one who said stand up and be strong.
The biggest impact in our lives comes from the place where we spend most of our childhood days.
Yet, we silently ignore that it's important to us.
I guess it's because you don't know what you have until it's truly gone.
Teachers, remember your impact
When you sit down for your meetings and begin making your decisions and judgement, remember that child with no air conditioning or food in the fridge.
Yes, I want you to think about the kid getting bashed in the head or hearing their mother's screams ring out and having to decide whether or not she's dead.
I need you to think about that silent kid who sits in the back of your class, he or she may not have a home to go back to.
Remember the child that came in your room and just cried, and without words you knew that they were wishing to die--you stepped in, you changed a life.
I was that student and yes you, you simple teacher, saved my life.
My argument is not insufficient, because I once sat in that seat. I know the feeling to be alive but feel dead inside and have different factors toy with my head. When no one came to my rescue and I thought I'd be better off dead, a teacher stepped in and said I was enough instead.
I applaud you teachers.
I want you to know that no matter what we do or don't say it, we really need you.
Yes. You. You simple teacher I'm talking to you, I want you to know when I grow up, I wanna be just like you.
Because you aren't an insufficient argument, but a safe haven.
Makhia Smith is a Sophomore at Central High School in Memphis, TN.