Kate sat at her desk in a front corner of the classroom. It was piled with papers covered in slanted, sloppy writing, that of a horde of third graders- which was also how she felt about them most of the time. There were a few good eggs, good kids, kids who wanted to learn and succeed. They were few and far between, though. Most of them just wanted to yell, scribble, or just waste her fucking time. She supposed she should’ve expected that having taken this job at an inner-city school. She took it hoping to be one of the superhero teachers she’d seen in all those movies growing up, the ones that inspired her to become a teacher, the ones that lead her into this terrible situation. She sighed and looked up.
The kids were supposed to be doing their math boxes. Easy enough work. She’d been sure they understood when she’d used the overhead to walk them through the example problems. And maybe they did; but if so they hadn’t been too enthralled to start their own work. A few of them were scratching away with enthusiasm. The rich ones. She wasn’t proud of the thought but that didn’t change the facts in front of her. The rest of them, even one or two of the rich ones doodled in the margins, on the back of the worksheet, or just ignored it altogether.