Proving Me Wrong

Baby days are upon us! The "Teen Living" class at the school issued out plastic, crying, life-size babies to students so that they can have a smack in the face of how bad it sucks sucks sucks to have a kid when you're not ready.

In one of my classes yesterday, there were four plastic offspring that wouldn't shut their soundboxes off. Finally, all of them were silent at the same time and it was bliss.

At the beginning of the 8th grade hall at my school is the classroom that houses the severely-challenged or mentally disabled students who have around the clock care. The door is always shut and nobody really knows they're there because the classroom is entirely self-sufficient (stove, washer, dryer, etc.)

Yesterday, as soon as my room was free of crying babies, the door swung open and a young girl ran in. I had never seen the girl before, but it was immediately apparent that she had severe problems. Somehow, she had broken away from her teacher and had, for some reason, picked my class to enter.

Now, I was a 14-year-old kid once, so I know how easy it is to find the faults in someone else and laugh them to scorn. In my experience as a teacher, I have found that more often than not, kids will jump at every opportunity to tear someone else down. When the girl ran in, I thought that the kids would erupt laughing and make her the center of attention for the wrong reasons.

I was wrong.

The entire class sat there silently and watched as the embarrassed teacher ran in to corral the young woman. When the girl and her teacher left the classroom, nothing was said and we were able to get right back on task.

I'm not sure if they noticed their behavior, but I absolutely did. I was very impressed at how they all decided to not make this girl's life harder than it already is. I was impressed that they had the maturity to understand that it's not her fault that she's disrupting our class. I was impressed that they understood the magnitude of the girl's problems and chose to give her the benefit of the doubt.

There are many days when my students reinforce my belief that 8th graders make stupid, careless decisions.

But there are also days when they prove me wrong. Very wrong.

Yesterday, I was proud to be their teacher.