Happy Back-To-School!!
Yes, some of you have to wait until next week to watch your little ones enter or re-enter the world where they learn to love learning. But, a good number of you have started that journey today.
You've already bought your #2 pencils and have unearthed the absolutely joyful aroma of a brand new, recently opened three-ring binder. Mmmmmm. You've sniffed the wide- or college-ruled paper and smiled to yourself as you pondered all the awesome things that are going to happen between now and the end of May. Your fingers have itched to open the colored pencils that you can't use yet because, technically, they're for school.
Or, you just realized that your friend is even more dorky than you thought she was and probably needs to go back to work in the near future because she misses teaching like she would miss a piece of her heart if someone came along and ripped it out of her chest.
I'm not sure how to smoothly segue into the thoughts that have been rattling around in this crazy brain of mine, so I'll just set it up with a disclaimer.
If I step on your toes, I'm sorry. I am not trying to sound self-righteous and I am not trying to insult Birmingham. I am sincerely curious about this because, honestly, neither DWH nor I have experienced this until moving here. I do, however, think that this attitude may have something to do with why I often feel like such a square peg in the Birminghole.
Also, DWH, I'm about to start harping, so feel free to stop reading now. Love you.
Why is it (and I really do expect someone to respond so that I fully understand) that people here in Birmingham refer to children who live in apartments with absolute disgust and sheer revulsion?
I need to understand this. It baffles me. What do they have against children who live in apartments? Or, any children, for that matter? Do they honestly believe that their children are superior to someone else's? Because, um, they're not. Really. Neither are mine.
Since moving here almost four years ago, I have heard several people say, unapologetically, that they do not want their children to go to school with children who live in apartments. I have heard more than one mom claim that her child's school's test scores are so low because their school has students who live in (ugh!) apartments. I had mentioned it to DWH a few times, particularly when we had conversations about why I was having such a hard time making friends here, but he had never heard it for himself until the other day when he took Sweet Pea to play at the pool. There were a couple of families with young children there, and they were discussing different neighborhoods in the area. One man said that he would love to move into a nearby neighborhood, but it's in ______ school zone and they let apartment kids go there!
Needless to say, DWH was as disgusted with the sentiment as I am.
So, what is it? Is it that they don't live in a four-bedroom brick house? Is it that their parents don't make as much money as someone else's? Is it (gasp!) OH! You don't think the privileged kids might sit next to the apartment kids in class and have them breathe their poverty on the pristine little cherubs, do you?? Oh, the horror!
I've heard this nonsense in the fellowship hall of a church. Really? That's the example you want to set for your kids? "Let's go to church and pray and live out the gospel of Christ - except when it comes to THOSE kids. I don't want you to go to school with THOSE kids. They're not like us." Sounds like a pretty good example of why non-Christians have a hard time taking Christians seriously, to me.
There are a lot of people with whom I can't identify. The, "I'm too good to live near a Wal-Mart" people are a bit of an enigma. I don't get the people who can't let their daughters leave the house without a bow that's the size of their living room. I'm sure I'll never understand people who don't like chocolate or who enjoy camping. But, I've known all those people everywhere. The anti-kids who live in apartments thing is new.
Maybe I just don't want my kids to be so naïve that they think everyone is exactly like them.
Maybe I wonder, if these people knew that I had lived in a trailer park or a neighborhood across the street from a housing project, would they still be friends with me? Or would I bring their kids' test scores down?
P.S. If you want to see something inspiring, check out Olivia in Peru. Olivia is a former student of whom I am very proud. She is living out God's mission for her life by teaching the children of missionaries in Peru - right alongside children who don't even have apartments to live in. Maybe we need a little more of that.
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