I spoke with a group of youth offenders that were court ordered to attend the session. Each of the students is at a crossroad in their life and in need of guidance. They spoke candidly about their life struggles, challenges and hopes. The common dominator was the lack of positive relationships, role models and the belief in themselves that they were worth changing. Another educator and I shared our struggles and challenges in life and the conscious decisions we had to make in order to be successful. As the “at- risk” (or as I prefer to call them, the “Possibilities”) youth left the session many of them thanked me, cried, or attempted to explain their plight. On the days in which you as an educator cannot see the end for the piles of paper and testing, remember that the impact you have on students goes beyond just teaching them the subject matter. You can be the person that enables a student to choose wisely while they are standing at the crossroad.
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