The Backpack Drop Zone: One Sixth-Grade Truth That Exposed Our Quiet Crisis

are tired of being edited.

He leaned into the microphone.

“And adults keep saying school is about getting us ready for the workforce,” he said. “But what if we don’t make it to the workforce because we’re not okay right now?”

Silence.

The kind that makes your ears ring.

Tommy’s mother wiped her eyes fast, like she was ashamed of crying in front of strangers.continue reading …