First Lesson

Well, I have to say, I have not worried about choosing the wrong job. Being a substitute teaching assistant is challenging, especially when nobody really knows where you're supposed to be at any given time, the classes and students you're working with aren't there for the whole or part of a day, and you're being stretched between four different classes. Yesterday I forgot to bring my paper schedule to work and I think I did alright without it, except for I forgot to go check on one of my students later in the day. It didn't seem to matter, though, because at the time I was supposed to be with him it turned out another TA was with him anyway. I am in no way complaining, I have it fairly easy. Heck, at least I'm just a TA substitute, and not an actual teaching substitute. Then again, I am the one who always did (and still does) say she would never teach. We'll see where God takes me.

So far this week, I have learned a lot, just from the little kiddies in the school. The school's emphasis is on accepting diversity, and they happen to have one of the best anti-bullying campaigns I have seen so far in my life. Better than the schools back home, I tell ya. It really makes a difference when the rules are strictly enforced and not just suggested by motivational speakers during a yearly assembly, and when the good students who make one small bad decision aren't the ones the teachers make an example of (which happened a lot in my high school, and is still happening today, last I heard).

In my first three days of subbing, I have seen students in sixth grade and younger help mentally and physically handicapped students be understood by their peers and teachers, I have seen them assist these students in tasks, and give them their undivided attention to play and converse as well. I have seen boys high-five girls whose speech is hard to understand and who live in wheelchairs. I have seen sweet little blond girls invite the girls wearing head-coverings and dresses that cover their ankles to stand with them in line, complimenting them without anyone saying anything about the way they are dressed. I have seen kindergarteners have compassion on the boy who lashes out when he doesn't understand, and forgive him instantly if he's hurt them once he calms down. If children can do this, why can't we? Why can't we, as adults, as the role-models of these very children who we are bringing up to be accepting, compassionate, and forgiving, be those things in our own lives, and not just tell our youth to be that way?

It's time for us to stop trying to bring forth change by changing the views of the next generation, and work on these changes in our own. Not instead of guiding the next generation, but alongside them. It's time for us to learn what we've been teaching.

With that thought, I will leave you. Blog #12, done.