How would I describe this amazing thing I call teaching…well, that’s a little difficult to sum up in only a few words. Honestly most people (minus the education majors from JSU and Tougaloo who frequent my classroom) don’t ask me why I became a teacher. Dimond, my Miss Teen Alabama that I worked with over the summer was extremely interested in why I became a teacher, mostly because I was so young. She was shocked at the state of the schools in the state when I told her about them. I come from a family of educators and those who serve in the military, my community on the coast accepts a similar facet. In Ocean Springs, Ms all the women become teachers, and the men work off shore or become a lawyer. That’s just how things work. Even when they question my choice in schools and my school district, a simple service based answer is fine for them. Being that I am black and from Mississippi, when it comes to people I know the misconceptions are far and few in-between. I was raised in the Mississippi School System and so were most of my friends. If they weren’t they went to schools that mimicked the school that I teach at now, so they don’t feel that the state of my school and my students are anything sad or embarrassing. The only misconception that I face is the fact that people think that I cannot handle my classroom or my students. I will be the first to admit that I work in one of the worst schools in one of the worst districts, and we all know what comes with that as far as certain student behaviors. Most of the time it’s people who are from the area and people who have attended or been in the schools that doubt my capabilities. At times I doubt them as well. Sometimes I think to myself…. “April, what have you gotten yourself into with the kids!?” I never let these things exit my brain or my immediate team though. When people ask me how I feel about my district or my school I only speak on the positive things, because I know the truth. I know that a school cannot change if the community surrounding it does not.This factor is so much deeper than what an outsider can possibly fathom. It’s different from an area where there hasn’t been generational poverty and the neighborhood is designed where fighting is the only way to be safe. If a child has never been read to, how do we expect them to love reading. It’s all very clear to me, my students, and everyone who enters our building. These are the things that I tell people who question my teaching high need, low skilled, behaviorally challenged children. It isn’t until outsiders looking in take a step back or even in, that they will realize that the students in Mississippi who are served by the public school system often live similar lives to them. Grown up lives, a life of stress and struggle. This, I feel is the only way to truly give people justification for being a teacher.