I was a popular teacher at a local continuation school. I wish that I had spent more time getting students ready to make the most of a difficult world, one that demands answers without asking the questions or providing resources to assist in solving the problems that will inevitably face us.
I used to think that by being popular, you could connect with young people, in a way mentor them without even trying.
When I told students that I worked in juvenile hall, they would get really interested.
They would ask me if I ever got scared. Other kids asked me where I worked exactly. Usually at Los Padrinos, I told them, although a couple years ago I used to help out at Central -- Eastlake.
Of course, some of the kids were interested because they had already been locked up once, usually for violating probation. One kid confessed that he was a burglar, go picked up, locked up, and then had been recently released. Usually, they wanted to know if I had been walking around in the halls around the time that they got locked up.
When I talked about incarceration, the inevitable questions always came up:
"Have you ever been arrested?"
No, emphatically no. But I don't brag about it.
"Have you ever done drugs?"
No. No need to. And I do not brag about that, either. Living a life of faith, which means that He lives in You, I do not struggle to keep the law, to play by the rules. The Holy Spirit lives in me, and in every believer, leading us, prompting, and reminding us of our righteous standing before God.
I feel content without have to take a foreign, illicit, and inherently dangerous drug to feel good. I feel a sense of purpose without having to break the law. Faith in God, in Jesus Christ, moves mountains, including depression, disease, and despair, as well as deviance. Unfortunately, the state forbids me to tell the students this - I would be violating their rights to freedom of religion (which has been inconveniently construed to mean freedom from religion).
They were surprised when I told them "No" to jail time and drugs. Amazing -- it is unusual for them to meet someone who has not been to jail or done drugs, under neither the influence of the state or a substance. But that's what true freedom is all about.
Indeed, some kids do have to run from the bus stop to their homes to escape marauding gangs. If I were in their situation, I would be very little interested in learning -- if I had to deal with thugs on the street and police, and parents who are not available, if they are even living in the same house. I know that I would not be interested in learning if what made me what I am in the neighborhood that I lived in a kid stuck with no hope. With all those unseemly vice, I know that I would not care about the lesson or the teacher in front of me.
These are the thoughts I ponder now, now that I no longer run around in the local continuation school. I wonder, somewhat ruefully, if I was just helping these kids continue to fail.
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