The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America by Michelle Wilde Anderson

Author:Michelle Wilde Anderson [Anderson, Michelle Wilde]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-06-21T00:00:00+00:00

BELIEVE

Crossing Over to a Living Wage

Destiny Rodriguez, who opened this chapter, made it through the paraprofessional program (despite the long hours and housing pressures), thanks in part to an apprenticeship. She was teaching back at her own middle school, which itself was healing. In spite of everything she had gone through, she was moving forward in life. Her job at the school was to work one-on-one with struggling students. Some had behavioral issues or ADHD. Others would “just lose hope,” Rodriguez said, and withdraw from school. One young boy in particular really stuck with her. He acted bored and goofed off in class, and at first, he stonewalled her. But soon he learned that Rodriguez had gone to that same school and still lived in his neighborhood. He asked why she carried a backpack and learned that she too was in school with homework. Something changed at that moment, Rodriguez recalled. He sat down and began to read aloud with her.

That boy helped Rodriguez realize that she wanted to work with middle and high school students, despite the additional challenges. The little children, she said, were sweet and affectionate, still happy with their teachers and school. Rodriguez sought the rewards of turning youth back to school after they’d soured on it. She wanted to raise their expectations of themselves. From her own experiences, she felt that “you have to teach the child that you have now, not the child that you want.” She wanted to be the kind of teacher who met youth wherever they were developmentally and emotionally, “instead of trying to make them different and fighting your way through.”

Youth had all kinds of backstories, she knew, including missing parents, or trauma and violence at home. Even in the ordinary case, she said, “us as Latinos… we’re sent off to work. You know, even as children. And we’re taking care of our siblings in order for our parents to work.” That, she explained, “weighs a lot on our children.” In her graduation speech, she articulated the hope she had for her classmates and the profession of teaching. “It takes a big heart to shape little minds,” Rodriguez told them. “One word, one question, just one second to stop and remember that our children are humane, and they deserve kindness, empathy, sympathy, love, time, and a teacher who encourages their success when no one else would.”

In fall 2019, a few months after I attended her graduation, I met Rodriguez at a downtown cafe. Owned by a local family, the El Taller cafe and bookstore had all the seductions of youth and urban vitality, even as it felt uniquely Lawrencian. The baristas, with big smiles and bigger tattoos, took orders for fresh food ranging from Puerto Rican specialties to “yoga bowls,” from banana mango oatmeal cookies to “bee sting” lattes. Shelves displayed books to browse and buy, mostly by writers of color such as Martín Espada and Michelle Alexander. The walls hung art for sale by Lawrence High School students, and a colorful painting announced the wifi password.

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