Cause I Ain't Got a Pencil

A fellow colleague shared this poem with me and I absolutely loved it.  I shared this with our staff during inservice training. This piece is a great example of what some of our students deal with on a daily basis as they get ready for school. We have no clue what they go through just to get to school.

Some of our students have to get their siblings ready for school, wake themselves up, wash their clothes, get to the bus location in time to catch the bus.

When they get to school, they get to eat a good breakfast because they have no food in the pantry.

Even though, they did all this stuff to get ready, they forget their backpack at home. They have no pencil. Because they have no pencil, they are not prepared for class. The teacher fusses at him because he did not come to class prepared.

You know the rules. You better bring a pencil to class. You need to go to the office because you are not prepared for my class.

Have you ever seen this before?

Unfortunately, I have. We need to remember we do not know what our students home lives are like. We have no idea what they had to go through just to get to school on time.