ChooseKind

Over the last few weeks, I have had several conversations with students. One student said he didn’t like anything about school and didn’t like anyone except his mom and girlfriend. Less than a week later it was reported that he was physically abusive toward his mom. One student told me about all the places she has lived over her lifetime. I know that she is currently homeless. Less than a week later her mom took her to the hospital because of her mental struggles and self-harming. Another young lady claimed that she had been forced to do sexual acts with a boy. I share these few examples not for shock but for reality. This is what students bring to school.

We all have the teacher’s pet. We have those students who know how to do school. They are enjoyable to be around. They do their work. They raise their hand to speak. When ask them to do something, they do it without talking back. They are nice to other kids and respectful toward adults. They are fun to be around.

The students I mentioned in the beginning are not the "teacher's pets" students. They are frequent fliers to the office. They often do not show respect to adults. They can be mean to other kids. They frequently do not do their homework and may be habitually absent from school. They are not nice to others and are full of drama. School is not important to them. Sometimes school is the only time that they are expected to adhere to any rules or procedures. Sometimes school is the only place where they are expected to do anything.

With all that being said, no student deserves to be treated unkindly. Sure it is easy to stand up for and treat those “good kids” kindly. Despite what the other students bring to school, how they treat other students, or how they treat us, they deserve to have an advocate as well. They deserve for us to stand up for them. They deserve us to choose kind. We may be the only one in their lives to do that!