How to Teach a Class of Children the State Would Kill with Impunity
Do. Not. Cry.
If the dam breaks even just a little it may never stop and you may lose control and turn into a pile of nothing and become another trauma they must heal from. Do not cry, self. Try really hard not to cry.
Tell the truth, but maybe not the whole truth.
They are children and while they know the world is not fair, you cannot look them in the eye and tell them your deepest fear is that when they leave your class they can go from human to hashtag as fast as a literal bullet. How will they walk through the world knowing as children they are not free?
Breathe.
Although your heart feels like it cannot possibly take anymore sorrow less it explode, it can and it will and just when you feel the explosion, one deep breath is a reminder that you are alive, in this moment, here, with these children who are alive, here, who are not yet done, you are not yet done, and when you breathe out, you make a little room for all the things you’re made of. Remember who and Whose you are.
Repeat in and out until it hurts a little less.
Remember hope.
The fact that the sun will rise in the morning is why you are here.
