Albert was one of the kids that I worked with at the garden. He would always show up early to help and was the most invested in making sure that the garden flourished. However, Albert was also the hardest to get to work. While it was easy to get him to do activities if he was paired with his friends, he would often not want to help otherwise.

 

In the classroom, the same could be said. As I worked with him, he seemed as though he was not interested in school whatsoever and was just there because he had to be. So, I thought that I would go talk to him and try to get him interested in learning along with his friends. I asked him what he liked about school, and he said he liked to learn and read. I waited a second, then asked why he did not want to participate in class. Would he not learn much more that way, and get more opportunities to read? He replied saying that he had already read all of the books that they had and wanted to read and learn something new, but there was no other place for him to do so. His school did not have books that he could read at his level and was effectively trapped. I was astonished by this. Not only was this kid much more studious than myself, he had the initiative to finish all of the books he could read and could not do anything else. The only reason that he did not pay attention in class was that he felt that there was nothing more for him to gain from class.

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His story really stuck with me since it shows how unfair life can be. Here was a kid who deserved the best resources and all the books he could possibly read and more. Yet, because of where he was born, and where he lived, he could not access these resources that I had taken for granted as a child. Not because he was less studious or less motivated, but simply because he lived in a poorer area. Albert was a perfect example of economic inequality and how unfair these systems treat various groups of people, and that really stuck with me all throughout my Anawim project.

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