It’s 2014. I’m 22 years old and a first-year teacher at a preschool in Chicago. As a teacher, you’re not supposed to have favorites, but you know there’s always that one student. For me, that’s Jeremy. He’s four years old. Jeremy’s curiosity always has me on my tiptoes. “Why do you wear that on your head? Why are people shooting in the neighborhood? Why do I have to sleep during nap time?” His curiosity feeds his yearning to learn. We bond over books and he continues to ask why. “Why do dragons eat tacos? Why would you even give a mouse a cookie? They would never leave your home.” True.

Fast forward to 2015, and Jeremy is still in my class. He is now five. Recently, he’s been going through some changes that have manifested in his behaviors. He has multiple tantrums each day and has started hitting staff members. His mother tells us that his father has not been in his life for about a month now. One afternoon, the tantrums get really bad. Jeremy continues to scream and hits my assistant teacher. Whenever he hits a teacher though, he immediately retreats behind me in fear. I can see in his eyes that he is scared and cannot figure out how to communicate his needs. The school director comes in and starts talking about calling a service that would come and take him away to get him evaluated in a hospital setting. I’m in shock. This child is five years old, and I know we have not given him the support he needs to cope with his recent life changes. I take Jeremy to a corner of the room, and we read Today I Feel Blue by Jamie Lee Curtis – a great book to talk about emotions. Following the book, we talk about how Jeremy can respond when he’s experiencing different emotions. He’s calm and even reflective. He gives me a hug (because in preschool, everyone’s always hugging each other). Slowly but surely, the hitting stops. Jeremy copes. And he grows. He channels his energy back into reading books. Before he leaves me for kindergarten, he learns how to read.

It is 2018. I am in my second year of teaching at Muchin College Prep, and I am teaching my last class of the day. This is also my most challenging class. Class had just begun, and I pass out a review packet for an upcoming grammar quiz. My scholars are antsy and chatty and full of energy. One of my students, Aaliyah, raises her hand and says “Ms. Faruque, we’ve been in your class this whole year, and we really don’t know anything about you. We don’t know why you wear a scarf on your head. We don’t know where you’re from. Can you please just tell us?.” In my head, I’m thinking that we really need to accomplish these objectives for the day, but maybe this could be an opportunity for me to build a bond with the class that I could not get to engage with content this year. So I tell her and the class, “I’ll make a deal with you. Since this is a review for a quiz, you are going to work on this packet, but as you’re working, I’ll answer any and all questions you have for me.” It was a deal! 

The questions begin: “Why do you wear a scarf? Were you forced to? Do you wear it in the shower? Can I see your hair? I have a cousin who is Muslim but she doesn’t wear a headscarf. Did you know Malcolm X was Muslim? Can you Google other Muslim celebrities?” Now we’re scrolling on Google Images. “Wow, I didn’t know Dave Chappelle was Muslim. This is so cool!” We continue to have similar conversations in class often and my scholars share their different perspectives. I feel engagement in the classroom increase. I see grades improve. We even have inside jokes as a class. This is now my favorite class for the rest of the year. 

Children, whether they are four or fourteen, are constantly curious about the world around them. When they become young adults, they develop more agency to explore those curiosities. An educator’s role is to foster a learning environment in which students feel emotionally and physically safe. Furthermore, when the educator cultivates a community that celebrates different identities and honors students’ lived experiences, students feel empowered to become independent learners who go out on their own to explore the world. 

I continue to work in the field of education because I want to teach students to continuously think about and question the systems and structures in which they operate and which impact themselves and their communities. In doing so, they will be able to challenge inequities and influence positive change.  And in order to make change, they must always ask, “why?” 

*Names used in this narrative have been changed to protect the privacy of the characters mentioned.