I Taught Them Well!

As a teacher, you often think about past students and wonder how they are doing. After all, they were "my kids" for a whole school year and you invest an awful lot of time in these kids. You hope that they all go on to live productive, well educated lives. Well, imagine my surprise when not one, but two of my former students were on the front page of the newspaper today.

The first one made the front page because he was involved in a "possibly gang related" fight at W.al-m.art. The best part of the whole story - when he pulled his gun out, he shot himself in the abdomen. So, lets review- kid goes to W.al-M.art with a bunch of friends to start a fight, pulls out an unregistered, concealed weapon, and shoots himself - UGGHH!

Student number two was arrested after the vehicle he was riding in is pulled over and the police find two loaded rifles, mar.ijuana, and other drug paraphernalia. Oh, and did I mention that these rifles were stolen?! Then there is the fact that this student also had a warrant out for his arrest as well.

In all seriousness though, there is a part of me that is sad for these boys. What a life to be living already at age 17. If they had only had a family who invested in them when they were young. I had both of these boys in fourth grade and it didn't surprise me one bit when I heard about this. I thoroughly enjoyed both of these boys and they both had great personalities. I hope that maybe they can find a way to still turn their lives around.

In my mind, reading about these boys is just another reason why foster parenting is such a good thing. Hopefully by offering a stable home to a troubled child, MJ and I can give them some of the love and nurturing they need in order to head down a more positive path in their life.