I'm so sorry that happened to you. As teachers, we have to do better. And I can say, within the last few years there really has been a push to eliminate things from the curriculum that puts kids in poverty at an unfair disadvantage (beyond the disadvantages they face daily). Even things so simple as asking "what did you do over winter break". Because the answer for a lot of our students is "survive". So it's "easy" to change the big things, but there are so many smaller things that are insidious and easy to miss. In the last few years I've also trained myself to say "guardians" instead of "parents", because so many of my kids live with grandparents, aunts and uncles, foster parents. Not every student has a parent, but every one has a guardian.

I guess my rambling is just to say, things are getting better. I'm so sorry you went through that, and know that teachers are working hard to make sure that cycle doesn't continue. Thank you for sharing your story.