As a middle school teacher extraordinaire, she threw herself into her career. Her goal had always been to make a difference in the lives of her young students. The longer she taught, the more she wondered if that was still possible. In the past fourteen years she had given every ounce of energy to her work when she was at school. She worked hard to teach geography, history, literacy, organization, and life skills. Her teacher persona, Ms. Abdul Hakeem, was respected by her peers and she was either loved or hated by her students. She was always honest with her students and stood by her statement, “I am not here to be your friend, I am here to help you learn to be a good student and more importantly, a good citizen. I don’t lose sleep if my students hate me.” She knew that most of her students were crying out for structure and limits. Unlike when she was growing up, parents today didn’t seem to know how to set those limits for their children and as a result she had to work hard to set those limits in her classroom. She took her responsibilities seriously and sometimes was very obsessive in fulfilling them every day. Over the years she was recognized for her hard work by her peers, students and their families. Serine worked at the same school for nearly fifteen years, almost her entire teaching career thus far. She often wondered if that was from loyalty to her school or the inability to try out other teaching environments. She decided this year that she would apply for a transfer to a year round school. She wanted to pursue her graduate studies and try working outside of the classroom but still in education. She loved her profession despite the low salary and the bureaucracy that comes with working for a huge school system.
She couldn’t help but wonder, however, if she had fulfilled her responsibilities towards her own children who were raised by her and her parents. After the divorce from her children’s father, Serine struggled to be the best mother she could. The divorce from their father took its toll but she was determined to raise her children the best way she knew how. At twenty four, she was a single mother and the children were five, three and one and a half years old. Most of her adult life was focused on them.
She supported their education as best as she could, attended a local university to complete her bachelor’s of education, and worked part time to supplement the meager child support she received to pay the bills. At night when the children went to sleep she studied, wrote papers, and contemplated her future as she fought sleep. She was always a good student and graduated in the top twenty percent of her high school class, so doing well in college was second nature to her. Graduating with honors in 1995, she began her first teaching job at a small private school in Greensboro, North Carolina. She enjoyed teaching there but earning half the salary of a local public school teacher and having no benefits wasn’t going to help her family. She interviewed with the local public school system and started her first job in at an urban school in North Carolina. As a first year teacher she earned less than 23k a year. While that salary might have been sufficient for a single woman, it was not very much for a single mother of three. She did her best to choose the best living environment for her kids and opted to live in working class neighborhoods where her children could safely play outside. The thought of living in a poor neighborhood where she would be in constant fear for her children’s safety kept her awake at night, so she made the only decision that she could: to spend more than she could afford for rent, but to live in a safe yet humble neighborhood. With her circumstances being what they were, it was the best that she could do.
