You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?

At a Good Day Teaching, a Philadelphia teacher rants about the epidemic of people who refer to our students as "these kids." She writes,

>>Although many comments can be helpful and germane to the larger conversation on educational reform, there are a depressing number of comments that refer to "these kids". "These kids" the rant goes, are irredeemable, not able to be educated, worthless, beyond saving....<<

This irks me beyond belief. When teachers/policy makers/community members/well-meaning friends and family of mine refer to the students in urban schools as "these kids," I feel like they are abdicating responsibility for them. Let's give up on "these kids"; they are not our problem.

Well, they are your problem. They are certainly my problem. And I wouldn't trade my problem for any other problem in the world, because they are MY kids.

A Good Day Teaching goes to say,

>>Here is what I see: A group of boys and girls who can be, on any given day, funny, engaging, heartbreaking, infuriating, hard-working, insightful, lazy..... In other words, kids who are like almost any other group of twelve and thirteen year-olds in the country!<<

If you talk to me long enough, you might believe I've actually mothered 130 kids. I talk about my kids devotedly, exasperatingly, excitedly, and with an abundance of affection I never knew I had in me. Some of them are more difficult to love than others. And my expectations differ, too. I want only the best from some of my sweetest, smartest, and most mature students, while simply a smile from Bright Kid with World's Biggest Attitude Problem warms my heart.

But don't talk to me about "these kids." I don't know what kids you're talking about. If you mention my kids, however, my heart will flutter a little bit, and I'll be happy to talk to you.