Words

I have two stories to share today, one good one bad. I'll start with the bad and end on a positive note.

I have a few boys in my class who I have identified as having a particularly difficult time with the emotions of being a teenaged boy. These boys have difficult home lives, and in my opinion, really just need some encouragement and for someone to believe in them. With this in mind, this morning when tasked to choose 3 of my students to miss class and help the 3rd grade teacher blow up balloons for a party, I looked past the hands of the usual "responsible" kids and chose 3 of these boys to help. They left the room with big smiles on their faces, excited to have been chosen.

A few minutes later, one of the boys came back with tears in his eyes and angrily slumped down in his desk. I asked him if he got in trouble and he said no, he didn't.. but that the principal just hates him. A minute later, the principal showed up at the door and asked to see me outside. She told me that I shouldn't have chosen those particular 3 boys to blow up the balloons because I needed to choose students who could easily catch up with the work that was missed. And, she also told me that she thought they just wanted to get out of class to goof around.

They hadn't actually gotten into any trouble. She had just decided that they were not worthy of the privilege of missing 15 minutes of class to blow up balloons. A minute later, the next two boys came back to the classroom looking just as angry and dejected as the first. One of the boys commented that the principal thinks they're too stupid to miss class.

I wanted to cry for them. How could a person who has been working with teenagers for as many years as my principal be so misguided in her interactions with them? Sure, they may have missed out on 15 minutes of instruction had they stayed and continued blowing up the balloons. But, being sent back to class for no better reason than that the principal did not deem them worthy was more damaging than missing 15 minutes of class could ever have been.

I was trying to empower them, and she squashed whatever shred of self-worth they had.

:(

I did promise you a positive story, though, so here it is:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/29158145#29158145

Follow that link and you will find a heartwarming story about one of the marines deployed with Hubby. It made me cry - in a good way.

These two stories remind me of a quote I once heard, "Words can hurt or heal. What did yours do today?"