He turns the doorknob as the bell rings.

“You’re late” greets him with rolling eyes.

He takes his seat as his teacher explains the agenda for the day.

“Today I am not going to challenge you. I will ask you mediocre questions that will neither stimulate your brain nor intrigue your interests. Ask questions if you want, I do not care enough to reply with a quality response.”

He is handed markers and construction paper as if his level of intelligence coincides with a 5 year old.

“Did everyone do the readings?” She asks while twirling her hair. The answers are their blank stares into cold dense air.

Why should I care?

Instead of teaching her students she passes them along so they can be “someone else’s problem.”

The students mutter that they don’t give a rat’s ass if they pass. School presents nothing but an unnecessary obstacle to their life.

The teachers that care could not bear the idea of teaching students who did not care about Shakespeare or Cell Biology.

They tend to their AP students who are motivated to make it not the students who can’t take it.

Expectations?

The only expectations these students have is to contribute to the household income, to babysit their siblings, and be the parent while still being a child.

School systems that do not focus on helping students who are at a disadvantage, call the students stupid or unwilling not realizing that they have no reason to put forth effort.

Why put effort into something that in their neighborhood means nothing. An “education” does not stop the gun-fire from spraying onto them in the bitter dark night.

Knowing the 14th president does not end the abuse they see and experience day in and day out.

These types of teachers need to implement value of education not spit information to students so they can past standardized tests.

 If not passed this makes students hate the rows of desks and papered test more.

The teachers that should be praised are the ones who care deeply about their students understanding the importance of education.

The kids who know this is a way out from everything they fear are the kids whose teachers have given them a passage and a voice in a world where they have nothing.

If I could say this shit to the teacher who rolls her eyes at the student who comes in late, not realizing it took him everything to get there at all, I would be exhilarated.  

Happy to know that they are forced to listen to the perspective of an individual who cares, who swears when they hear the lack of power, love, and creativity toward students who need it most.

Resources outsourced to schools with better test averages, money stripped from neighborhood with lacking tax money to provide a book for a student.

The teacher who does not have expectations…should be the person in the classroom seat.