What Kids Want Teachers to Know

When Kyle Schwartz first started teaching, she wanted to get to know her students better, explains Donna De La Cruz, in her August 31, 2016 New York Times article, "What Kids Wish Their Teachers Knew."

"She asked them to finish the sentence 'I wish my teacher knew…' The responses were eye-opening for Ms. Schwartz. Some children were struggling with poverty (‘I wish my teacher knew I don’t have pencils at home to do my homework'); an absent parent ('I wish my teacher knew that sometimes my reading log is not signed because my mom isn’t around a lot'); and a parent taken away ('I wish my teacher knew how much I miss my dad because he got deported to Mexico when I was 3 years old and I haven’t seen him in six years').

The lesson spurred Ms. Schwartz, now entering her fifth teaching year, to really understand what her students were facing outside the classroom to help them succeed at school. When she shared the lesson last year with others, it became a sensation, with the Twitter hashtag ‘#iwishmyteacherknew’ going viral."

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