Be Kind
My blogs so far have been on the silly side of teaching and
leadership...lamenting the woes of what a teacher leader is supposed to do and be,
how the hell I got involved in this wild ride, etc....but today I've got a
serious topic. Kindness. I started thinking about this the other day
in my 6th grade gifted English class. We
are currently reading a novel, The View from Saturday, by e.l. konigsburg,
about four unlikely friends who bond over their participation in an academic
bowl and the teacher who chose them. It
is a uniquely written novel from varying points of view. The kids are different; they're quirky, and
definitely unique compared to their peers at school. Every year I read this novel my kids moan and
groan. In today's world of nonstop action,
this novel of friendship gets the thumbs down.
But it's message is powerful.
So I decided to have students blog about the chapters
thinking maybe that would help them enjoy the book more this year. I pose a question and my students respond to
my question and their peer's comments.
It's working wonderfully well.
The students are extremely engaged.
And as I was reading a post by one of my kind-hearted, ever helpful,
people-pleasing students it stopped me dead in my tracks. We talk, as a class, before each posting
about THINKing
before "speaking". I found
this poster on Google images and so we talk about the posts being helpful,
inspiring, and most importantly kind.
You see, the teacher in this novel is a paraplegic and at one point in
the story the bully asks her to write higher on the board because he is in the
back of the room he can't see what she wrote.
And later he writes the word cripple on the board. Of course the teacher reacts appropriately,
even injecting a little humor. I had a
question in my blog post about the teacher and what kids' impressions were of
her. That kind-hearted boy wrote,
"She's a really good teacher for a paraplegic." I honestly don't think what he wrote came out
as he wanted and it didn't register as poor taste with him either. Some kids picked up on it, but nobody was
appalled. Why?
Hmmm, what's a teacher leader to do in this situation? Of course, in my usual fashion I addressed it
with humor and said to the boy, "Boy, you're pretty smart for an
Indian." I got a bunch of Ohhhh's
and Wow's, but the point was made. Think
before you speak. We talked about how
powerful words can be as a class.
I've got a boy in class this year who is difficult. He believes he is academically far above the
rest of his peers (and me) and he makes sure everyone (including me) knows
it. Middle school aged kids + pompous
attitude = recipe for disaster. Needless
to say, he doesn't work well with others.
One day this boy, during silent reading time, was walking back and forth
in front of the classroom reading his book.
I am pretty lenient on where kids sit and read, but most just stick to
their desks. So this brazen display of,
"I'm reading" was only there to make sure he is seen. Everyone noticed, but said nothing...except
this one boy. He walked back to the
classroom library and bent down and whispered to one of his friends about
"Ben". After a few moments, I
went up to the boy and said, "I saw you whispering to your friend about
"Ben". Everyone is
different. You need to be kind...you
don't have to be friends with him, you just need to be kind." Blushing, the boy agreed.
