Teachers Know Everything

Judge me. Tell me things about myself that even I don’t know. Apply your stereotypes that you've conjured up from long ago. Tell me what I’m capable of and tell me what’s impossible. Answer my every question before my brain could even ask you.

You can read your books and even major in psychology, but I can promise you, you know nothing about me. For I am too mysterious and I’ve seen too many things. These books can’t help me in the real world. These books can’t protect me.

How can I fight off a rapist with Edgar Allen Poe? How can I relieve my mother of the stress of 5 kids by reading her Shakespeare or multiplying and finding distance? No, I want to learn something a little more realistic. I want to save lives and find a formula for how many times I could apologize to heal a broken heart with their tears in their eyes.

I want to find a cure for cancer, but these lectures and labs aren't helping me with the answer. I just want to do something that is real. Something to improve the way a depressed person feels. If you can’t teach me that, then teach me the steps because I’m losing my loved ones to the mystery of death and I haven’t figured out what’s on the other side. What is waiting for them after they die?

Teach me self-defense. Teach me the law. Tell me my rights and tell me when I’m wrong. Tell me about my ancestors. Let’s further technology. Help people turn off the switch that makes them want to keep lying. Teach me something that is actually helpful to know. Not the fact that there are 119 ridges on a quarter.

Give me teachers that actually care about me. Not ones that show up for a $50 paycheck and words that tend to scar me. Hating us and hating the world. Seeing kids with bruises, but ignoring it because they don’t get paid for it. I want teachers that can see that I’m stressed. I’m in school with a job playing two sports and watching someone else’s kids.

I want teachers that ask me if I’m okay. Because I’m borderline passing, alone, and filled with rage. I’m on the edge and I could be insane. Everyone has abandoned me and no one knows my name. Just give me an ear that will listen. Instead of a mouth that restricts my permissions. Give me a hug to relieve my pain because my father is in jail if he hasn't run away. I have no way to school and no clothes left to wear. I’m stealing lunches at school. Just trying to find food in a world that has forgotten me.

I want a teacher that gives directions on how to get there instead of a teacher that directs me and tells me where to go. Now I’m in a major I can’t stand. Because no one took the time to understand. They labeled me as a test score and ignored my personality. Categorized me by abilities, but rejected me if someone did better than me. They fed me attention and put me in the spotlight, but now that someone is smarter, I've been dumped to the side. They have feasted on my confidence. Chewed it up and spit out and I’m just trying to pick through what’s left. Because if I am not the best, I am the worst in the eyes of my teacher in the classroom.