[Martina]

So the entitled annoying demanding TFA intern?

She still is that. And she WAS raised privileged, so she has those assumptions and expectations in her bone marrow.

BUT at 19, her father had a catastrophic health problem, and her family lost pretty much everything, including their house. Her mother has become his 24/7 caretaker, and the TFA intern and her sister now pay their parents' rent.

It's true that she has all these other annoying qualities of a TFA intern, but wow. Just wow.

It was a lesson for me that there is ALWAYS more to the story than how people present. In fact, this woman is what she appears to be. But she is more, much more. She is courageous and strong. And a good daughter. She is disciplined. She had to work all the way through college. No big deal, but still. She did it. My view of her has so changed. Such a lesson.

It's also a lesson about how vulnerable the middle class has become, how easily people can lose everything. She was still able to finish college. But she did have to give up her goal of going to law school. And she did it AFTER she spent a year after college studying for the LSATs while working a semi-shitty job. After much consideration, she decided that the job market was too soft for lawyers to risk being out there with a gigantic debt load. Not when she has obligations. She watched her good friend, who she had studied for the LSATs with, go off to law school. This is not the same harsh reality that our students face everyday, but this girl started out with more privilege than I had as a youngster but has had fewer options than I did -- because of long-term economic changes.

God, life is tough for all of us. I do so need to recall that.

Seriously, being middle class is not what it used to be. When a privileged, healthy, well-educated, disciplined young person can not enter the halls of power because she is not privileged ENOUGH, think of how hard it is for the working class to get ahead. And the idea of the law profession as a whole being peopled only by the very elite or very lucky . . . that is scary.

So as a result of my guilt, I have given this girl a lot of time. Re some Special Ed stuff, I have seen the scales fall from her eyes. Re other things, she's still overwhelmed and won't get it till she gets it. That's typical. But she's all grateful and thinks I am wonderful. Little does she know how I was reacting to her at first. Gawd.

My boss still thinks she is a useless waste of space (an opinion arrived at independently of mine, thank the gods). But, fortunately, my boss will not be evaluating the interns this year. The other principal will be.