Sitting here in middle school at lunch and I noticed a picture of a one room schoolhouse. This made me wonder when learning will be wanted again. Wondering when students will want to get the most out of their education because they can see what life is like without it.
There were quite a few students I've gotten to interact with today that don't seem to care about what they are learning and why they are here. Then I think back to the students that used to walk miles in all sorts of weather because they knew what life was like without this information. The students that would be sad when school was done for the season or they had to stay home and help work there. It just makes me wonder what those students would think about all of the privileges we have today and how so many students take for granted the amazing life they get to live. Do you ever wonder these things? I just got back yesterday from an amazing weekend at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. The whole weekend they focused on one phrase, "Setting People Free". It got me thinking how you could help set someone free. It got me thinking that there has got to be something small that you can do that will cause freedom to happen in someone else's life.
An example I have is that there was a massive push up contest this weekend. You're probably wondering what doing push ups has got to do with leadership. A push up is something small that anyone can do. It's the why behind the small thing that made all the difference. We had been challenged 3 months ago to go out and raise awareness and funds to help fight human trafficking. Did you know that slavery still exists today? There are over 300,000 kids your age in slavery in the United States today. We learned of a group who's mission is to go out and rescue those kids from slavery and make sure that they are kept safe until they are old enough and strong enough to go out on their own. They challenged us to raise $100,000. The group brought in cash $737,000 this weekend with more coming in still. That may seem like a huge amount of money to you. I challenged my daughter's youth group and they did a push up challenge and they brought in $1847 the night of the push up challenge that grew to $2838 by the time we left the next day to go to the convention and there's still money coming in for the cause. The small things that we can do will multiply. If you do the things for good, they will multiply in good beyond what you can imagine. If you do the things for evil, they will multiply in ways you would never want to imagine. So I guess my thoughts here would be, what small things are you doing with good intentions that can multiply and spread and eventually change the world just like these few push ups everyone did for just a dollar a push up. Dream big and then have someone help you dream bigger and believe that it can come true. All it takes is a step of faith that it will all work out. Think about it. During my lunch break today, I got to thinking about all of the classes I had this morning and the time that I have gotten to spend with them over the years. I was inspired by the question of, "Why are we in school?"
I've had some conversations with students who have told me that they do not want to work hard because then they'll get harder work. I don't understand that because I've always thought that we are in constant pursuit of becoming better people. Isn't this part of the reason why we come to school? I don't think we're in school because our parents need somewhere to send us so that they can go to work. If that were true, we could be home with a babysitter or sitting in a day care somewhere watching soap operas. I don't think we're in school just to waste time or just spend time (depending on your thought process). Wasting time means that it doesn't have a value to you. Spending time means that you know that you have a limited amount of time and you know it has some value. I'm pretty sure were here to invest some time so that we can get a return on our investment in the form of better thinking and being better people. You are here to get something out of your time you are investing. Even if it's something as small as learning how to get along with someone better. Or learning when to talk and when not to talk. Or how to read better and faster. Or how to do math well so that people don't take advantage of you when you get older. Or what happened in the past and how they fixed it so that we don't have to do that all over again. Or how to show respect so that you earn respect in return. All valuable lesson worth your investment of your time and energy. And in reality, you are not that far away from heading out into the "real world" and having to take care of yourselves. I hope you realize that some day, your parents are going to want to stop working and won't be able to take care of you any more. Enjoy the moments you have of being a kid while staying open to the lessons you need to learn to take on that role of taking care of yourself. Besides, do you really want someone else to be in control of you for the rest of your life? I was talking to another teacher today and they asked me a question and we wondered why students don't figure this out and make the most of it.
The question was about why students feel the need to talk all the time. Or at the least, why they feel the need to talk over one another. It was posed wondering why students haven't figured out that if they listen when they're supposed to listen and talk when they're supposed to talk that you would have more friends and get more recognition and approval. Eventually the good behavior will lead to tangible results and more things they really enjoy doing. If you have any thoughts on this, start a discussion. If you have possible solutions, we'd love to hear them. Here is situation that I have had happen a few times lately. There are a few students who insist that they want to be the teacher. They tell me when things are done and how to do them the right way. They sometimes give me small compliments telling me that I'm doing it right.
What type of personality would you think they are? How would you as a fellow student interact with them? How would you as a teacher interact with them? |
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