Tonight's Poet Corner: Introspection
So I just wrapped up my first semester at my new school. And as you probably could tell from my last poem, it ended more with a whimper than a bang (thanks, T.S. Eliot). I know it was only one student. I know they were probably angry and just wanted to find reasons to dislike both me and my class. More than ever before, I've let what students think of me simply roll off my shoulders. Not this time. This kid truly believed that, because I had made some minor mistakes and small misguided decisions that could be misconstrued as racial microaggressions, I did not belong at the school I worked at. They did not think I fit into the "diverse" environment, and they were truly convinced that I could not work with students of color. After I had gotten the tears and anxiety out of the way, I was mostly baffled: How could I, a white teacher who will always have to work on the way they interact with their students because of the racist institutions in place, improve by simply leav