I need some good news.

Today was our last day of inservice. It was mostly a day to work on our lesson plans and to prepare for the week, but at 8:30 they loaded us up on a school bus and took us on a tour of the district. We started out in the neighborhood off Malone with some very beautiful homes, nicely maintained and landscaped. They they drove us through some neighborhoods that are in need of help. They ended with a drive through the country on some of the worst roads in the area with homes that pretty much look uninhabitable. I know why they did this. Many of our teachers live in Norman, Shawnee, MWC among other places, so they don't really know how some of our students live.
I drove a rural bus route for eight years, so I wasn't at all shocked by the sights. Since poverty is all over Oklahoma, only the teachers who aren't paying attention would be shocked by the scenes we saw today.
In one neighborhood the homes could have been nice, but very few were well-maintained. Because these people are living week to week, or month to month, they don't have the money to repair their house or property when it is damaged. They may have insurance, but with high deductables, they don't make claims when the repairs are minor.
The rural area was typical of neighborhoods all over Pottawatomie and Lincoln county. A local businessman buys an acreage of rough, unblemished land and makes a few crude roads and sub-divides this land. He sells it to people and carries the note, and they move from town to "the country" to enjoy the good life. The roads are private, so they aren't maintained by the county, so today we drove on sticky red mud that our students have to walk through before they catch the bus. Most of the homes are mobile homes with no skirting, exposed pipes that freeze easily. Some are 5th wheels that people use for their main residence. many of the homes had been abandoned, so the businessman can repossess the land and sell it again to another unsuspecting dreamer.
It takes money to live in an area like these. You need four-wheel drive vehicles, plenty of gravel for your driveway, a tractor or some kind of heavy equipment to clear and grate the roads. Someone who knows what he is doing to make the drainage right so that the roads and driveways don't wash out. These people don't have the money for any of these things, so it becomes too hard to remain there. They are paying high interest, so it is easy to walk away and leave the place.
It breaks my heart that people of means will take the most advantage of impoverished people. They will charge high interest and make unbalanced deals that put poor people at a severe disadvantage.
All I can say is I need some good news. I feel like we have been given such a gloom and doom inservice that we are all going to school with a black cloud over our heads. I don't want to stick my head in the sand; I know many of our students are very impoverished. I get it. Quit beating me over the head with it.