some things i've learned that i wish i didn't know

Over the past 24 hours I've been thinking about some facts of life I've learned since I started teaching. Among those things are some sad realities that in my sheltered middle-class upbringing I didn't know, including:

• Countless little children spend every night sleeping on a floor. They may have a house but furniture is a luxury. Others have 1 bed for everyone in their house. My school is a small one, but there is such a great number at my school who don't have a bed that I can't imagine how many there are in this country.
• People live in campers. I don't mean motorhomes. I mean tiny little campers. Whole families squeezed into one. When the campground closes for the winter or for renovations they drive off to another campground.
• There are an unimaginable number of children who love school not because they enjoy learning but because it's the only time they are warm in the winter, the only place they get to eat a real meal and/or because it's the only safe place they know. Thinking about what happens over Christmas break and the summer makes me hurt.
• There are families without running water in their house. (I can still remember how much this one through me for a loop my 1st year teaching. I honestly thought that all houses in our country had running water and toilets. I can't believe I was ever so naive that I thought outhouses were a thing of the past.)

I have to stop now, I have tears running down my face and that wasn't where I was going with this. I really intended on writing something about how the lessons I wish I didn't know remind me just how blessed I am, but right now I'm just sad.