I’ve been a teaching assistant in the Media Center of Washington Technology Magnet Middle School for just over a month, and I’m developing a new level of sensitivity to the problems that face the poor.  When I was a teenager, I volunteered at a preschool for kids with developmentally delays whose families were struggling with abuse, neglect, poverty, and substance abuse.  They were stressed, and they acted out in inappropriate ways because they couldn’t express their feelings.  It was easy to calm them down by holding them, or rocking in the rocking chair.  My students, seventh and eighth graders at a St. Paul junior high, are bigger than I am, and they’re still struggling to express their emotions about abuse, addiction, extreme poverty.  School is one of the only constants in their lives, here they can get away from problems at home, and they don’t have to worry about where their lunch and breakfast will come from.  A student was arrested in the library’s computer lab the day before Thanksgiving vacation.  The holidays are hard on poor kids, and the tension level has been rising every day as winter break approaches.
Despite this, they’re still kids.  The less defiant ones still melt into adorable piles of goo when anyone smiles at them.  My eighth grade school service helpers, specially selected to spend their electives working in the library, are bright and funny and responsible.  Sometimes I struggle to find the line between being their manager and being their friend.  Bubbles wants to talk to me about her friends, and
This is a wonderful school.  The staff is dedicated to their well-being, and the teachers keep their expectations high.  At the rural high school where I mentored History Day students, my bright but underachieving protégées were all but ignored.  Here, everyone is expected to read like crazy, and are required to stay after school if they get behind in their homework.
I’m getting better at reader’s advisory.  I expect that by the end of the year, I’ll be able to recommend a book to someone based on almost any criteria.  Recently, a student asked me for a book “like Into Thin Air” that would be somewhat easier, so I found him another book about an Everest expedition.  He seemed indifferent, so I asked if he likes real life adventure stories or fantasy.  He mentioned fantasy, so I suggested Golden Compass, which he said was too hard.  I ended up recommending Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl. Only in a junior high school library could it be logical to go from Mount Everest to a twelve-year-old criminal mastermind in less than five minutes.