Friday, June 8, 2012

True sense of failure

I found out today that one of my former students is pregnant.

I've taught five year olds whose mothers were still in high school but this is the first time a student I worked with is going to be a mother. Throughout the meetings I had today I could not stop thinking about her. What happened? More importantly- what will happen next?

As a school we rallied behind this student and tried so, so hard to give her the support and love she needed in order to make good life decisions. We worked with her after school, listened to her, counseled her, and encouraged her.

I cannot even begin to put into words how heartbroken I am to hear about this. Sadly I do not think any of us are surprised, but all of us are devastated.

Not making AYP and being labeled a failing school in the newspaper is nothing compared to the crushing blow I received from this news.

2 comments:

Jenny said...

Oh my. I am so sorry - for you, for her...

Anonymous said...

It is OK to feel terrible for the student, but you really should not feel any personal failure, nor that the school has failed. The infuences on this student (her family, her friends, the culture around her) weigh far more heavily than school or teachers. It's a reality. While you should feel great when you sense that your influence has helped students avoid early parenthood (or any other unfortunate choice), you must not blame yourself when that influence is overwhelmed, as it often is, by others.