Early this month I was able to attend Goshen's mainstage play Step on a Crack, which highlights how Ellie, a ten year old girl transitions after her father remarried. I have grown up in a household where both of my parents were always present; this play presented a way for me to think about how children deal with the death of a parent, parents' separation, divorce, or other circumstances that seem to be so common in our society today. As a teacher, I will need to be aware of the family background of my students because I think that it will often affect how they interact with persons in authority, such as the teacher and how they treat their classmates. A child who lives with both of their parents and has no siblings will respond very differently to me than a student who has lots of siblings and has been abandoned by one of their parents.
During high school I had the opportunity to tutor a third grade girl who came from a single parent household and lived in low-income housing. She often had trouble getting her work done and would sometimes simply refuse to answer any of my questions or do anything at all. What do you do with a student who refuses to look at you, listen to you, and just wants to stare off into space? She helped me develop patience among other things, but I enjoyed working with her. That was one of the first times in my life that I thought about teaching as a career because I realized that I really wanted to help her. I wanted her to succeed in school so that she would have a greater chance breaking out of the cycle of poverty.
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