It happens every day. Kids are cruel to each other, snapping insults back and forth. We correct. We make them apologize, and then it starts all over again. Then we find our own voices and bad attitudes added to the mix. Our nerves have been frayed, emotions are raw, and our patience levels are falling like snow in these winter months. We're left longing for spring break which seems too far away. But sometimes it's ok to stop the lesson and dig down deeper to get to the root of things. Maybe that's where the real lesson begins.
That kid that is shoving, fighting, sleeping his way through the day. What's going on at home? What's really going on in his head? This rotten apple you're afraid might spoil the whole bunch. Sometimes it's easy to fall into thinking that the instigator in your classroom is the villain to your hero story. But he's really just a kid confused about right and wrong, and most of all, who really cares. Maybe we take him aside without the ears of his peers or outside the classroom for a few minutes to find out. Many times we'll find there's a deeper issue. Every student deeply longs for friendship, connection, trust, peace, even when it looks like they do their best to run from it. This "me first!" demand might actually be a question "Do I matter?" If we start to love them, root for them, and correct them like we would our own children, it's amazing what fruit they begin to produce. We just have to dig deep to find out what's really happening at the roots. Roots before fruits, and then have fun watching them grow up to surprise you.
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” Leo Buscaglia
"In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years." ~Jacques Barzun
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