Teacher in Training?

     As people we are constantly learning about things around us or the things forced upon us. The more I learn about the social injustices of our world the more I doubt what I am called to do. I love children. Children accept those around them, make connections to their world that are original and refreshing for me to hear, and children have a sense of adventure I hope to reconnect with. Children are the most important people in this world because everyone was once a child who was invested in or someone who should have been invested in.  

     In my music class textbook Integrating the Arts Across the Elementary School Curriculum by R. Phyllis Gelineau I found a passage that speaks to my heart- "As a teacher, I possess a power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized." I want to be the teacher that invests in her students and make them feel valued and important even if no one else ever has. My heart is in urban education. I want to work in poverty stricken communities such as Over-the-Rhine. I want my classroom to be a safe and fun place where children know they can accomplish their dreams.

     Over the summer I read a book called The White Umbrella by Mary Frances Bowley which changed my career direction. As much as I love children I believe I am meant to work with a different population of people. The White Umbrella addresses the issues of sex trafficking in our country. My heart was overwhelmed by the information this book contained. Here is how the book starts off: "You hear terms, sex trafficking, human trafficking, sex trade, sexual slavery. If you think about it at all, you figure it's something that goes on in places like India, Cambodia, Russia, and Latin America. Not anywhere close to home. Not here. Sadly, you are wrong. The FBI reports that in the United States, the number of children, usually girls, who are forced to do someone's sexual bidding is well over 100,000 a year. The age range is nine to nineteen. The average is just 11 years old. Some of these kids are runaways and some are abandoned. Many other's come from "good" homes. They are victims of cruel and clever predators who know just what to offer- the appearance of friendship, a listening ear, the promise of love or money or a new life. Some girls are even lured from their own driveways." 

     When I was reading this book over the summer I found myself putting it down only after I read a few pages because the content was so heavy on my soul. The White Umbrella is an "easy" read considering the other books that deal with human trafficking in our world. However, at times when I was reading this book I felt like I could not breathe. After being introduced to this book I got plugged in with an international organization dedicated to rescuing women from a life of sex trafficking. This company is called Better Way Imports and they work to educate, provide health care, and teach these women a skill that they can use to make a living for themselves and their children. This company employees 500 women from all over the world that were victims of sex trafficking. My mom and I were moved by this companies ambitions that we decided to get involved. My mom and I now go around our community educating people about the horrors of human trafficking and offer others the opportunity to get involved. 

     After reading The White Umbrella I have decided to go to grad school for counseling with a specialization in counseling victims of sex trafficking. I know this program and the profession itself will be the hardest thing I will ever experience but I also think it will be the most rewarding for me personally.