March 30, 2013
I deal with children most days because I am a substitute teacher, working in whatever grade needs a substitute for the day. A lot of days what I see breaks my heart.
For instance, I substituted last week in a classroom where one of the children had been assigned to sit by himself. I gave him a lot of attention and helped him do the things he found difficult to do and encouraged him to do them for himself by starting them and putting them into his hands until he felt the need to hand them over to me again for a moment. I did what I could to encourage him, and I know he noticed what I did. At the end of the day he told me he loved me and wished I was his teacher.
That same day there was another child who gave me a lot of grief. He argued with me and challenged me at every moment. I was really annoyed with him and let him know that by frowning at him from time to time.
Near the end of the day a third child didn't want to do something with some other child in the room because he didn't like that person. I don't know who he was assigned to work with because the teaching assistant had given them the assignments and I was focusing on the child I knew needed attention. I told the one who objected that it didn't matter whether he liked the person he was assigned to work with or not. He had to work with that person anyway because we all have to accept and work with everybody, even the people we don't like.
Later in the day I heard the child who was getting on my nerves tell another child of the same race that he shouldn't like the other people in the class who were of a different race. I told them that it wasn't what was on the outside of a person that mattered but what was on the inside.
At the end of the day this child who was so much on my nerves told me that most of the children in the classroom, who were of a different race from him, didn't like him. I answered that perhaps it was because of the way he talked to people, but when I thought about it later I realized I said that to him because of all the talking back he had done to me during the day.
I felt really sad. Maybe he was so argumentative because he presumed that no one would like him or stand up for him so he had to stand up for himself. I hadn't shown him a great deal of love during the day because he had seemed to me like a human porcupine. And yet he is one of God's children and he really wanted to be accepted for who he is with all the gifts God gave him. I didn't give that acceptance to him when I could have.
I have no idea if I will ever see him again, just like I never know if I will ever see any of the children I meet again. But I know that if I do I will make sure that he knows I think he is a valuable person, even when I don't approve of him arguing with me or talking back to me when I say something. And I pray God will send someone into his life to help him realize how important he is in the world, which won't be me because I just sow the seed and wait for someone else to take care of the plant. I seldom see any student I teach more than a few times during the year. But I do pray for them all.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Index
Sex and Marriage on the Freedom of Religion page, in progress.
Called To Be Single at the bottom of A Pilgrim's Point of View page, finished June 23, 2012.
Freedom of Religion at the bottom of the Freedom of Religion page, finished July 7, 2012.
From a Pilgrim's Point of View at the top of A Pilgrim's Point of View page, in progress.
Religion and Politics on the Freedom of Religion page, in progress.
Called To Be Single at the bottom of A Pilgrim's Point of View page, finished June 23, 2012.
Freedom of Religion at the bottom of the Freedom of Religion page, finished July 7, 2012.
From a Pilgrim's Point of View at the top of A Pilgrim's Point of View page, in progress.
Religion and Politics on the Freedom of Religion page, in progress.
