A: I am very honest with them. These are students who want to know everything about you. I remember when I was going to school in Glendale, I didn't want to know about my teachers. I was there to go to school and learn, and that was it. They want to know everything about you, they want to know about your personal life, they want to make that connection with you. So for me, it's important that I'm honest with them and very blunt, and I tell them, I come from Glendale. I drive from really far away. My commute is really long, and I could easily teach at a school in Glendale, but I choose to come here because I have faith in you and I want to prove to the people in Glendale and other places that you know what, you guys are just as good as them. And I tell them that I have high expectations for them, and when I meet other teachers, I want to tell them that my kids are in Watts and this is how well they are doing.
Q&A: Hanifa Farooq
Q: It seems like you're very emotionally invested in this.
A: Yeah.
Q: How did that happen?
A: Honestly, it's just meeting these kids. And I think a little bit of what fueled me was before I started this, I would tell people, "I'm teaching in Watts." Their faces changed and they said, "Really? Why would you go there?" or, "Are you going to be safe?" I think all of those comments really fueled me and motivated me to prove to those individuals that, "You know what, just because I'm teaching here, it doesn't discredit my kids." Yeah, they may live in the projects, they may have to deal with things that you're not comfortable with or that you consider not safe. You know what, this is their reality, and I'd rather it be me that's here and teaching them than me being somewhere else.
Q: How do your kids respond to some of your more innovative attempts to engage them, like the library of new books you brought into your room, or your "dead words" that are forbidden from your class?
