Do You Love Us?

(Pictured: Perspective's kids)

"Ms. Jessica?" One of my new first graders at school looks up at me through thick glasses, brown eyes curious about everything. "Do you love us?"

This is only the fourth day that he's seen my face, and, already he's asking.

Even though we change it into the 'like' word for school, the answer, of course, is yes. Because, I really do love them, this rough and tumble school full of kids from their trailer parks and cheap apartments and  houses too full with unrelated people or ever changing lists of "relatives."

They are sassy and desperate, fiercely protective and always bubbling just on the edge of disaster.

These are the kids who were limp with relief at the re-election of the President, because a crackdown on immigration laws would mean brothers, uncles, cousins, and fathers sent back to Mexico. These are the families where it is normal for an eight-year-old to have a mom who is twenty-three or a ten-year-old to have a mom who is twenty-six.

Long weekends are met with trepidation, and the quiet relief when they get back from breaks is palpable. They get into premeditated fights on the playground and in alleyways after school. They drink at home and watch Chucky in kindergarten.

I love this sweet and eager school full of kids who light up at the chance to make a craft project and dance the Sid Shuffle for me during lunch.

These are the kids who make me cootie catchers and pounce me with hugs during recess, who want to play tag and soccer and think that the coolest thing in the world is to carry my backpack. These are the families where older siblings save treats for younger ones and they bounce up and down with excitement over a new baby being born.

Cucumbers are the greatest vegetable ever invented and no one makes enchiladas better than each of their individual moms. The fifth graders devour these books and talk about them animatedly during lunch. They steal them off of each other's desks for long enough to read the next page and watch the (made for Australian TV) movies during library time.

They are all of the above and a thousand times more. Complicated. Testy. Brilliant.

Yes, I love them.

There is nothing surprising to that. I could say the same about all of the kids that I work with. But, it is important to this wiggly little first grader in his Cougars jacket. Important enough to ask.