A Freedom Writer Teacher's Story: Challenges #33

This teacher, Mrs. Sullivan, was surprised when a journal-writing activity turned into an emotional moment in her classroom. Her student, Ashley, shared with the class that her mother was not truly dead, as Ashley liked to say, but that she was addicted to crack and living on the streets.
Another student, Lisa, shared that she too had lived in foster care for a large part of her life because her mother was a drug addict.
As Mrs. Sullivan was touched by her students' stories, she decided to open up to them for the first time, and she shared that her mother had been an alcoholic. Her students sat in shock as they realized that for the first time in school, not only had a teacher inspired them to share their own problems and worries in order to gain help and support from their peers, but that a teacher had gone out on a limb and exposed her own troubled past to them.