Second Day on the Job - John Paul II

Second day on the job, and it was probably the hardest in my teaching career so far. I went to a school called John Paul II down in Putney - about 90% black population. I was warned by the agency that it would be a challenge and 'did I want to take it..?" What did I have to lose? kids couldn't possibly be that bad.
Not so. I arrived at the school to see posters all over the billboards at school saying "The inspectors said we are making satisfactory progress". After inquiring about the signs I was informed that just this week inspectors from the Department of Teaching were visiting the school, to see how 'things were going' - and that the school was on virge of being shut down because of the monstrous behavioural issues. If the school had not made a 'satisfactory' change then the school would have been shut down.

Just last week there was a riot in one of the class rooms, two teachers were assaulted and a large percentage off on stress leave. Yesterday, the day I was there, a guy broke a girls arm with his bare hands, and in my classroom, amongst other things a student, in rage, grabbed a chair and pinned another student against the wall. The look in those children's eyes was unbelievable - is so much hate, so much anger and they were only in Year 10.

All day, it was impossible to even ask them to listen to you, let alone pay attention so I could teach them. The teacher may as well not be there - no matter what you say, how you say it or whether you say it to them individually, the students totally ignore the teachers. I felt like I was in the movie Dangerous Minds or Sister Act II when Whoopi Goldberg tries to teach the students music; only without the happy ending.

I prayed for these kids all day. The hardest thing about the day was that each child had so much hate, so much anger in them and for me/for teachers even before you walk through that door. They are really broken.
Yesterday I saw but a glimpse of the how God must react/long for his people who are broken and need Him but do not see Him. Those children need God's love, and if only they were willing, they'd have it already.