All these truths can sometimes be deceiving

This is about two weeks old but I have been wrestling with it ever since:

Some days are harder than others.

I work relentlessly to teach my students compassion, to get them to a place where they are willing to spend a moment in someone else's skin, to see through their eyes. To understand why a person in the absolute pit of desperate poverty in Mexico would want to illegally come to the US, work under the table, have no insurance, pay no taxes, and either bring their family here or send money home. Is this right? I am not here to answer that. What I DO want is for my kids to see through another's eyes, to develop a level of empathy and compassion. I am not here to deliver answers, rather to mold the minds that find answers on their own.

My kids, however, only see through an extremely opaque and egocentric lens. The doors of America should be shut to everyone unless they are "Asian and coming to be a doctor or make society better". Money should not be sent to tsunami, earthquake, hurricane, or AIDS relief if it's for another country. All money should be spent on Americans, and every American should have as much money as possible.

My kids espouse their hatred of racism yet talk about Mexicans (their favorite target) in a way that reveals in clarity how inferior they are perceived to be. (Remember, 70 of 79 students I teach are Black) They blame everyone but themselves for the inability to get a job. Everything is always everyone else's fault. Literally, it's the white people. It's the fact that their daddy and his family never went to college so why should they try in school. Everyone's out to get them. (These were all literally said in my class today, and have been said in the past numerous times.)

The same ones that cannot afford $6 a week to buy lunches daily wear $100 Air Forces (shoes), $80 jeans, expensive name brand shirts and jackets...Nelly's Apple Bottoms and Kimora Lee Simmons' Baby Phat make bank off these kids, among other costly clothing lines. Plus they tote $60 monthly cell phone plans, lots of bling (faux or not), and their families all have cable. One "impoverished" student has a mother spending $1100 a month on car payments for her and her brother, plus paying for insurance and gas. Yet they don't have $25 a month for lunch. Not when the government will give it for free.

So tell me the difference between that and a Mexican immigrant who comes illegally and drives up costs due to not paying taxes and not getting insurance, since the government will take care of them if it comes right down to it. Why spend the money if you can get away with not spending it? I see no difference. My kids say the difference is that they are Americans and thus it's ok. It's ok to lie, cheat, and steal from the government as long as you're a citizen.

It all makes me sick.

Am I bridging the education gap? My kids are learning history, sure. Their reading skills are improving some, yeah. They analyze and think critically on levels that statistically they should not be able to.

But is knowledge without compassion true education?

Since posting that (it was on my other blog... I am a two-timing blogger, I can't lie) I have come to this conclusion:

Compassion cannot be taught. It can only be learned.