Teacher by day exhausted by night

I needed a place to express social equity topics and converse with others on dismantling systems of oppression.

[ehennek-blog]

At the age of 6, I remember needing the food on my plate to be separate and not touch (thank God for those plastic divided plates). I remember taking fork fulls of my food around my plate in a clockwise manner. I would chew one bite of food on my left side and the next bite on the right a total of 32 times every bite. At the age of 10, I needed to be equal. If my handed rested on my right leg I would need my hand to rest on my left leg for the same time. If I leaned on my left arm I would need to lean on my right. At age 14, I started high school- and counting began. I would count my steps from one class to another and always need to end on a "good" number. Passing time killed me as I was being bumped all the time and still needed to be "even". At the age of 16, I got my first job. My counting was out of control. I counted my steps, packages, hooks, EVERYTHING.

[ehennek-blog]

[ehennek-blog]

Not sure why I can't just let it go, but the school BUILDING re-opening debate (school never closed it just looked different this Spring) is driving me crazy. I can see both sides, but folks who are stating that schools should be opening if stores are open need to do a bit more research. First off the social distancing and mask issue is a thing that I feel has gotten quite a bit of talk. I want to bring up a few more points that make schools different than stores. You aren't stuck in Target with the same people for 7 hours a day. Also if kids are confined to one room, think about how Target is in November and December. That's about the ratio of people per space we are dealing with in a classroom. The stores are providing cleaning supplies to their employees (They didn't need to make a "back to work list" and pray people purchased things to keep their area clean). No more community materials. For the kids who's families can't afford materials, where do they get their things from? What happens to specials (gym, art, music), and elective studies? Special education services. If they can't be delivered, do we move to full inclusion, or a full resource room model? Wonder what IDEA and PACER have to say about that? When shopping the majority of the people you are interacting with are adults. Adults cover their coughs and sneezes, maintain distance, don't get up in your face to tell you a secret, and I would sure hope could make it to a bathroom if they were to vomit. This isn't true in a school. I get sneezed and coughed on daily. I feel kiddos hot breath All. The. Time as they lean in to give a hug or tell me I'm their favorite. How many cashiers would walk out if this happened to them, and rightfully so. In the six years of teaching I have dealt with spit, boogers, urine, poop, blood, and vomit. Sped folks we already know we deal with bodily fluids daily. Hope we can get enough masks and gloves. I don't know what the answer is, but please do not compare schools to stores.

[ehennek-blog]

A few nights ago, as we were going to bed, my boyfriend said something along the lines of "I tease you because I love you so much". This sparked a memory from about 20 years ago.

I was in second grade when a boy who sat next to me would sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star everyday but change the words to make fun of me. He would do this multiple times a day. I told him to stop, and he didn't. I told my parents and they said he was "being a boy" and that he probably liked me. It got worse and he was writing mean things to me. I told my parents again and showed them the notes. They went to the principal as this has been an ongoing thing. The principal, along with my 2nd grade teacher, looked at me at 8 years old and said, "boys will be boys. He probably just likes you". This was NOT ok. It is not ok to dismiss bully behavior based on gender. It is not ok to assume that as a woman you will grow up being degraded and accept it. It is not ok that this turns into catcalls. Boys will be held accountable for their actions

[thesewersof-paris]

there are so many really great REALLY INFORMATIVE guides like this on Instagram.

here's one from @courtneyahndesign (on insta)

[ehennek-blog]

This is a great place to start if you are open to start learning about white privilege. Peggy McIntosh's article titled Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack dives deeper into identifying white privilege. If you become defensive while reading these questions and comments stop and ask yourself why are you feeling that way. Come back to it when you have an open mind again. Stay curious.

[ehennek-blog]

The first time I heard the term white privilege, I became defensive. My thoughts "excuse me you don't know how hard I worked to get to where I am". I then took my defenses down and became curious about why I was so defensive. I had a lot of things going for me just because I happened to have white skin. The system worked for me and I made it through college and obtained a professional job with relative ease. It's NOT like that for people who are not white. The easiest examples to start with and wrap your head around is the more superficial problems. The make up example. I can find my skin tone in any store. I can also find hair care products in any store that sells it. Another example is being able to go to a store and buy band aids that match your skin color. Start here and then question everything.