Taggart :donor: on Nostr: nprofile1q…2psxq Hoo boy, this one is near to me. I wouldn't say I saved his ...
nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnddaehgu3wwp6kyqpqjy6aa53n5aay7jjv8nqws0nua4cfxwmr2ffvv635pr3j7pnp7q7q62psxq (nprofile…psxq) Hoo boy, this one is near to me. I wouldn't say I saved his life—he did that—but I bore witness and maybe helped show the way.
When I was an English teacher in alternative ed, I had a student who had been charged with murder, but not tried as an adult. Rough, rough situation that was self defense no matter what the police said. So here he was in my classroom, the last stop before juvenile detention. My whole job was to keep him out of there, because the US "juvenile justice" system is just a way to ruin lives—particular the lives of poor kids and kids of color.
Anyway, so I I'm his English teacher, and I need to get him interested. A quiet young man, but not particularly engaged by anything. Until Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance. I don't know what it was, but it caught him, and ignited him. He started writing poetry, reading more, asking for books of poems. Writing became his Thing, and with it, he was able to complete his diploma, and apply to a community college with a scholarship.
I've taught many students since, but I'll never forget how poetry helped set right the course of one young man's life.
When I was an English teacher in alternative ed, I had a student who had been charged with murder, but not tried as an adult. Rough, rough situation that was self defense no matter what the police said. So here he was in my classroom, the last stop before juvenile detention. My whole job was to keep him out of there, because the US "juvenile justice" system is just a way to ruin lives—particular the lives of poor kids and kids of color.
Anyway, so I I'm his English teacher, and I need to get him interested. A quiet young man, but not particularly engaged by anything. Until Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance. I don't know what it was, but it caught him, and ignited him. He started writing poetry, reading more, asking for books of poems. Writing became his Thing, and with it, he was able to complete his diploma, and apply to a community college with a scholarship.
I've taught many students since, but I'll never forget how poetry helped set right the course of one young man's life.