Forgiveness In School
vs. bitterness
Releasing feelings of resentment
To practice Forgiveness I will:
- be quick to forgive
- apologize and ask for forgiveness
- let go of hurts
- not seek revenge
- respond kindly to those who hurt me
“Forgiveness”
by Bill Croskey
When educators gather to discuss having babies, like the rest of the world, the conversation turns to prospective names. But, if you have been in education for a while, like me, you may have run into what I call the “name disqualification game.” Teacher A says, “I was considering naming my baby William (to throw abuse toward my name). But I had a student named Billy one time. He was a little…rascal. I battled all year with him. I wouldn’t name my kid “Billy” or “Liam” or “Will” if you promised to pay for all 4 years of my kid’s college!” In other words, past associations with the name “William” have disqualified it from the list of potential names. Too many bad memories.
Memory of student relationships. I call it history. Teachers develop a history with each one of their students. Just like the history of a country, those stories can include war, peace, exploring new frontiers, and accounts of building, of loss, and of rebuilding. A relationship between a teacher and a student starts with much promise and with high hopes. But the teaching-learning process runs into obstacles even with the most able student or the most skilled teacher. Sometimes the obstacles are learning difficulties, but often the issues are about low motivation to learn or demands outside of school that are more urgent and prevent the student from being ready to learn each day. Classroom management techniques or tricks to help get students more motivated can help. But in order for teachers to make tomorrow a better day than today was, behavior-wise, they need to start over each morning. Tomorrow cannot be another day. It has to be a new day.
