Often conditions of poverty are confused with conditions of neglect… Gaining insight into those struggles also provides insight into the well-being of their children—our students. — It is empowering for them to see us, their teachers, social workers, and other adults who reject the deficit discourse and debilitating racialized, gendered stereotypes about them, their parents, and marginalized communities, to see us as educators and allies who will teach them, as Makeba’s lawyer and Elena’s principal did, to advocate for themselves and stand up for their rights. -Goodman, p. 108 & 126

The first question I ask myself is: How can you tell?

It’s not so easy to tell the difference between poverty and neglect and we are almost trained as educators to only ever see neglect regardless of the community we are in. But then I revisit my question and I realize that it’s not rhetorical. The answer is pretty straightforward: care enough to find out.

I feel that this can be understood as one of the ways to tell between a teacher that is involved in the community they teach at and those that are not. In order to become an ally for a student and show them that you care, you have to actually care about who they are as a person, not just who they are in the context of a classroom. Recognition initially that a student is a whole human being that experiences all of life can be the first step towards a more empathetic way of approaching students. Interacting with students and getting to know them better also is a great way to gauge what their experiences outside of the classroom might be like. In addition to that, not assuming things about their life but actually communicating with them and getting more information makes all the difference. 

The big question now becomes: How do I do this for all of my students?

It can seem so manageable to keep track of one student if you’re an elementary school teacher that sees roughly 30 kids throughout the day, but what happens when you’re a middle or high school teacher and we double or triple that number of students? When we add the bodily changes they go through? When we add the hormonal changes they go through? When we add the individual and personalized attention and need of every student? It’s easy for a few students to slip through the cracks. It’s difficult to embrace a job that “ends” at 2:20 but is actually 24/7. Reaching our students and empowering them is an amazing goal and feat to achieve but nonetheless a difficult end we strive, but also sometimes struggle, to attain with our students.

Becoming a true ally to our students doesn’t happen overnight and it’s definitely not an easy job, but then again, I would also like to believe that we all didn’t choose to be teachers because we thought it would be a quick and easy job.