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My students’ papers are filled with tales of crime, violence, family troubles and alcoholism, often expressed in street language. It’s hard for them to come to class and do work when they’ve got so many serious problems at home. One girl is going to the hospital to have her baby; a guy got cut in a street fight; another student has to take care of four kids, her own and her sister’s.

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Sometimes it’s not the crime that’s being punished but the lifestyle behind the crime.

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Society doesn’t value me, and I’m okay with that. But my students should not be growing up with the implicit knowledge that they aren’t valued either.

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I never went to public school. This is probably for the best because frankly I don’t think I would have survived.