For the past three weeks I've spent a significant amount of time with approximately fifty high schoolers. I crack jokes and complain, but in the end I really care for their well being and success. Considering that the program is college prep, we spend a lot of time doing academic, cultural, and social enrichment. Plenty of these kids do not have access to anything/anyone outside of their community; therefore, they have limited understanding of many things. Regardless, they have common sense and they understand their role in society, the perceptions others have of them, and how society tends to treat them.

This whole month, I've been aware of thes pairs of eyes that follow our group as we walk through crowds or into building. I've been aware of the glares, the mutters, and the judgments I can read on faces. I've been aware. And I've been annoyed--to say the least.

We've been volunteering at a children's museum, where the clientele and my students create quite the dichotomy. Today when we did our final reflection we did something called two pluses and a delta. It means they list two positive aspects and one aspect they wished could have changed. Each student that shared, said they would change the way the parents perceived them. They wished the parents wouldn't judge them by the way they looked, and allow their children to play with them.

Their job was simple. Interact with the children, and they felt as if they couldn't do their job.

The cherry that topped everything off. On our walk back to campus a few students came to me and said the previous week, a random man in the street called them "niggers." I was furious. He was at the same spot today, and bothered to mutter negative comments under his breath. Now, typically these kids will fight/yell/swear at the drop of the hat, but they didn't. I told them I was proud because they didn't make a choice that would cause them more trouble, but under my skin I was livid that this man would take the time out of his day to insult my kids.

I am in love with civic engagement (community service), and it's difficult to convince these students they should continue to give back to their community, especially when the community treats them the way it does.

ugh.