OT: Feeling of Pride

For nine years of my teaching career, I was at a pretty bad school, where there was desegregation bussing from North Philadelphia, as the school I was in had a diverse population.  I had one student in a fifth grade class, who struggled and I identified him as needing testing for special ed.  Two years later, I had him again in 7th grade, and he had not been tested.  He was barely reading at a 3rd grade level.  A year later, I followed those kids to 8th grade, all subjects, and fought like Hell to get this child tested before he went to high school.  It did not happen.  Because I knew about how "wonderful" the school district was, I tried to connect this young man with good students to mentor and be role models for him.  I feared he would be one of the many statistics of drop-outs from the inner city.  

A couple of years ago, I connected with him, and many other former students from that school on Facebook.  What joy it has been to see these young people from years ago graduating and going to college.  Well, today, June 10, this young man will graduate from Imhotep Charter High School, in North Philadelphia, a year late, but better late than never, and I have tears of pride in my eyes.  He is the father of a little boy, and I have already told him how proud I am of him.  He still has a long, hard road ahead, as do many young people from the inner city, but his road will be a little easier now that he is a high school graduate.  I honestly believed he would fall through the cracks of an imperfect system.  Thank God I was wrong.

And this is why we do what we do!  Enjoy your kvelling!  He will NEVER forget what you did for him!  In a word: TEACHER!

What an awesome and inspiring story! I also work in an inner city school district where many of the students don't even make it to HS. Most are in a gang, in jail, or dead. It is such a wonderful and fulfilling moment when you see a former student succeed! It is even more satisfying when you realize that YOU had a hand in that success.

My philosophy as a teacher is if I positively affect one childs life then I have done my job! I know that I have affected many students lives and obviously so have you. People do not realize what a hard job we do have.

Kudos to you on positively affecting this students life!!

Beth

What a great story.  You can truly be proud of your part in it!!!!!!

Thanks for sharing this.   Despite all the terrible stories, we have to cheer the positive ones. One child at a time....

Arlene 

That is wonderful!  I hope he is able to continue down a successful road, although he will certainly face his challenges.

Thank you for doing what you do best!