Teacher

Dear Diary,

It’s been a rough couple of months, that's why I haven’t written in a while, with school starting up and trying to teach my students the curriculum that the government has mandated, it's been extremely busy. It breaks my heart that I am forced to only teach drama, art, and music (not that there's anything wrong with teaching these subjects) because they are just as important. However, I know that they are capable of so much more, it’s so unfair. There is one student, in particular, Thor, who has so much potential, and I know he can do great things if I could teach him STEM on a regular basis rather than secretly.

Thor is very intelligent, he can solve problems in Math, and I am almost certain he has figured out the scientific theory of what is really going on with our zones. Sawyer, who lives in zone 2 has been granted special access to enter and exit between zones and has been secretly bringing Thor over to my place so that I can teach him privately and teach him more than what I can teach from my classroom. Even though he is only in grade 9, he has the intelligence of a university student. He could do wonders for all the other zones outside of zone 1 and be their ticket to a more fruitful life.

I am almost afraid to write here. What if they find out what will become of me, will the government exile me for what I am doing? I just want to do my job. I want to do what I love and help our future generation to become the best doctor, teachers, scientists, or whatever their hearts desire. I went into teaching because I want to make a difference, but if I am being held back, what’s the point? Most days I am secretly teaching the other students in the classroom the basics of STEM, but I must be very careful because what if they (the government) show up? They can pop into my classroom unannounced at any given time to see what I am teaching.

We had a scare last week. Thankfully the secretary in the office is a very close friend and she quickly advised me when the government had shown up unannounced. I was in the middle of a math lesson. The students were so engaged and they were finally understanding the concept of Algebra. We had to quickly flip over all the posters, erase the boards, and hide anything that would show that I was teaching STEM in the classroom. The students quickly pulled out their handmade instruments because that is all they can afford since the board won’t provide the school with any funding so we can purchase them proper instruments. We started to play in the nick of time when the door busted open and there, they were just standing there looking at the children as if they were peasants. At first, I thought that they knew something, but once I saw the smirk on their face it was almost like they were happy to see that nothing was really happening as if they thought these students were worthless.

I hope for the sake of these children that changes will happen soon, but I really don’t foresee anything happening for a very long time.

Ms. Humblebee