Cold Dark Night

 Sending our kids home for a two week winter break is always a mixed bag. While it is a sure thing that teachers and kids are both in dire need of some time away from one another, there is another side to this triangle: Home. All of the anticipation and excitement that comes along with the opening of that gate on Friday afternoon soon gives way to the reality of day-to-day life in urban Oakland. The place where kids were getting two and sometimes three healthy meals a day will be closed for half a month. The place that was giving kids focused attention for six to eight hours a day will not be available until after the start of the new year. 

There are always stories of teachers who reach out and support their students over the holidays. Making sure that Santa comes. Making sure there is a feast, or at least food on the table. Because we know that there are families that will be clinging to that thin line of survival even at this happiest time of the year. We don't have enough teachers to make every kid's Christmas one they will always remember. Instead, there are plenty who would just as soon forget it before it even started. 

These are the ones who are going home to empty houses, waiting for mom and/or dad to come home from their job or jobs, and looking forward to some time to be together. That doesn't always happen. While their friends and classmates go on about the Nintendo Switch they are sure their parents are going to give them, the kid sitting across the room knows that the next two weeks will probably be another two weeks of the same. Try as we might, we won't get out in front of everyone's expectations. Hearts will be broken. 

And they will remain that way until the that gate opens up again the first week of 2023. The doors will open to let the kids back in, and those that were fortunate enough to travel to Hawaii or spend a week in Tahoe will sit down at that morning meeting, barely able to control their desire to share the details of all the fun and festivities they enjoyed. There will be a few who don't have anything to share. Not because the don't feel like it, but because they don't have anything to share. 

Our school is going to try and get out in front of some of this sad reality, but we know that we can't reach everyone who has a need. Especially when we don't know what those needs are. So, in January we will try and be there again for the extra snack and the patient ear. We will go back to what we do. And hope that it makes a difference.