"Is this real life?"

We have conversations in my classroom quite often about what students want to do when they "grow up". I try to revolve the conversation around the idea that there are safer places to live where gun violence, gangs, and drugs aren't on every corner. While having this same conversation today I asked the question: "What do you NOT want to happen to you when you get older". The responses that came out of the mouths of six and seven-year-olds to the average person are probably shocking, to me not so much. Here are a few.

• "I don't want to be selling weed on the street."
• "I don't want to be shootin and killin people."
• "I don't want to go to jail like my.... (daddy, uncle, cousin, etc)."
• "I don't want to be drinkin at the liquor store."
• "I don't want to be livin on the streets."

Without a doubt I would have never experienced this world outside of my suburban upbringing or my home in a very safe area of Chicago. I commonly say to myself "Is this real life." I mean, how do these babies know about drugs and guns?!!! The cycle of poverty is so apparent that it is appalling. The quote below is so, so very true.