“I live with my Forty drinking grandma, they all burnt out at home;I ain’t going to end up like them, I promise, I’ll start coming to class.”

Life for these teens is challenging; hop in the rod, watch a gunfight at jack in the Box then cruise the swap meet. So goes the daily conversations on the school yard, someone said some shit, someones saw a piece, someone’s up in our business, someone wants to score, someone is pimping this ho, and on and on. It’s not easy being teenagers in our urban schools. They are afraid their voices will not be heard; they want to be popular and they want  cool friends. Unfortunately, most of my students despise me. “You are old, we are young” goes the mantra, “you don’t know nothing.”And I tell them it’s supposed to be like that. At first they turned their backs, but I keep showing up, so now they are stuck with me.