A Stranger in My Own Land

What you know, I do not know.
You analyze and decode information while I struggle to find meaning.
How can we be so far apart and still in the same education system of learning?
I say I did not learn it! But
You say I did! You say you taught me but you didn’t
I say, again, I really did not learn it!
You look at me and see what you want to see.
I want you to see me instead.
You shrug your shoulders and scratch your head.
And still I tell you; I do not see the connections.
And you look at me trying to figure out what went wrong.
Rather than show me, you do it for me.
Don’t rescue me. Teach me so I can rescue myself.
I am afraid of being ridiculed.
But I’m not afraid of trying again.
I am a stranger in my own land.
Teachers do not understand how I learn, how I retain and make sense of information.
Our experiences are to be valued.
They are our partners in education.
I wonder if education was meant to be!
Did those who wrote the books really see me? Really understand me?
How can we ensure that all students learn, understand and are able to know that a verb, noun, adjective, adverb, and all those other dangling particles are important to your language!
Your speech! Your identity! Yes, how to write and what you say are viewed later in society.
If you really do not know what you are doing, how can you make changes?
I see this everyday.
The struggles that some have with writing, reading and math while others move smoothly across the page producing something beautiful.
Or have they too struggled through the system that doesn’t recognize them?
Identity!
There it is again.
Does it really matter?
Does it count for anything?
Does it affect my ability to process information?
Can we move past this and begin to build on what was never learned, taught, or valued?
Can I know what you know?
See my face and understand my struggles. See my face and know that the battle is every day.
We don’t see things the same

I am your child.

I am ready to learn.

Will you teach me?