“Mexican and Central American women are among those who risk crossing the border illegally to take on this work and are expected to form close physical and emotional bonds of affection with their more privileged employers’ children or elders in their care, while relations with their own children let behind grow weaker…These complex family circumstances put immigrant children in the difficult position of experiencing two breaks in emotional attachments: first when their parents leave them for America, and second, when they leave their caregiver and extended family, to whom they have grown close, to be reunited with their parents.” (Goodman, 2018, p. 63).

This chapter was filled with an abundance of eye-opening recounts and communications, but this quote really struck me emotionally. It really put into perspective what these students are going through: first, they experience their parents leaving them (in this case, their mothers), often times when they are little, to make money by taking care of other children their same age. In this time, the children form close bonds with their other family members or caregivers, growing up to know them and not their own parents, and forming close parent-child-like bonds with them. And then, all at once, this relation is ripped from them as they leave to reunite with their biological parents, even though little or no relationship may exist between them.

This experience can trigger feelings of disorientation, confusion, rejection, abandonment and loss, first when their parents leave them, and second when they leave the family they have grown up with. And we wonder why these students aren’t interested in why x equals 2, or when the civil war started. The intense emotional turbulence these students have to experience can have adverse affects on their academic performance because of the thousands of other things they have to deal with in their personal life outside school. But unfortunately, teachers too often assume that their disengagement has to do with an unwillingness to learn and a lacking sense of responsibility. This quote, and chapter in general, really shows how we have to consider that these students are going through external circumstances that affect them greatly and can impact multiple aspects of their lives. Instead of assuming, our role as teachers is to have conversations with these students, see them as *people* and individuals with multiple layers to them, understand that they come from various backgrounds and experiences, and that they have a life outside of school that can impact their performance. It is our job to create a safe and supportive learning environment in which the students feel that even though they might be struggling emotionally with outside circumstances, the classroom is a place where they are supported, their feelings, worries, and concerns are valued and listened to, and there are people they can talk to to listen to them and help them.