Hello. This upcoming school year will be my 7th. I am a well liked teacher, and have won several awards for my approach and practice. During my first two years, I had the pleasure of having a group of at risk boys. We had a very good relationship, and I have been fortunate enough to have this connection with them today. I will not tell you that these are my best students; they get in trouble. But they are still in school, and I expect them to graduate. I cannot tell you that when I had them in class I would have predicted this outcome, but I am very proud of what they have accomplished-- despite their at risk behavior. My problem is, I have so many people around me that criticize my involvement with these kids. The popular menatility is they are little thugs that take advantage of me and don't deserve my inerventions. I hear this from everyone. I am not in there lives for friendship, but to keep them elevated enough so that they don't reinquish their potential before they use it. I'm torn. I have such a strong, verbal group on one side and a group of boys on the other. Help.

You are probably their only salvation. Good teachers get involve. These kids for the most part will turn their life around because someone cares.

They have no stability at home, nor do they ever get the attention they need to become good kids.
I wonder when one of their parents ever said "good Job, son"?

Keep up the good work. Everbody is worth something.

You plant the seed... you may or may not see the results of that, but odds are somewhere down the road these boys will remember that you were there for them... even when others didn't think they deserved it. It is quite likely they, in turn, will pass some of that on to someone else... perhaps their own children.

Can you "save" every child? Sadly no, but you can, for even a short while, make a difference in their life... and that can be all some of them might need to find success later on.

Years from now when those boys are successful they will never forget who turned them in the right directions.

You will be in the supermarket someday and a nice young man will come up to you and say Mrs?
Thank you for believing in me.

Thank the good Lord you care, and don't let those other teachers ever make you feel like you're wasting your time. You are helping those kids overcome a great deal of obstacles... God Bless You