Never Gonna Give You Up*

* With apologies to Rick Astley

One of our teachers had one of those treasured educator experiences yesterday, and she was kind enough to share it with me.  She had received a letter from a former student - a student who was by no means an "easy" student to teach, one who had in fact given both this teacher and others quite a challenging time in terms of behavior, engagement, and all-around efforts to reach him.

In the letter, he shared his current situation, which unfortunately is not a good one.  But his letter showed a mature ability to reflect on his choices and actions, and it showed the intelligence we all knew he possessed despite his actions and performance in school; his letter thanked this teacher for her efforts with him, despite the challenges he had presented to her and to others.  He shared that, despite his current situation, he was taking steps to try to improve his life, and he specifically reflected on some things he was doing that were a direct reflection on the work he had done with this teacher.

We can never give up on our students.  Never, never, never, never, never. 

They may give up on us; they may give up on school; they may give up on themselves. 

But our job is to be sure that we never give up on them. 

This doesn't mean turning a blind eye to their faults, or not holding them accountable for their actions (and, in fact, sometimes doing so is the strongest message we can send that we are not giving up on them). 

It does mean, however, that even when we have one of those days when a student has driven us past the last bit of our patience - and, no matter who we are, we eventually get those experiences with students - we have to handle the situation in front of us the best that we can; go home that night; shake the negative or discouraging elements of the experience off; reflect on how we can proceed forward; and show up in school the next day, ready to start fresh.

We never know WHEN it is that a student will turn things around; we never know WHAT it is that will make a positive impact; we never know exactly HOW it might be that we can help make that positive impact happen. 

But signing on to be an educator means signing on to being an eternal optimist - we believe that what we do can positively shape the lives of our students. 

There are days that's hard to remember; there are students with whom that's harder to keep in mind.  But it's part of our obligation.  It's part of our mission.  And, it's a huge part of what makes teaching the amazing, life-changing profession that it is.

Comments

[Char]

I like this post. "They may give up on us; they may give up on school; they may give up on themselves.But our job is to be sure that we never give up on them." this is probably my favorite part of this post. Honestly its nice to feel that someone cares about us in a time when it feels like no one else really does; a large amount of a time this person we trust is a teacher (or our wonderful administrates =D)

On a side note, did you know your blog is blocked...annoyingly, also postsecret(there was a post on there that i wanted to show my friend, because it would have made her day) is as well.

[Aparna Vashisht-Rota]

What a wonderful post! I am going through something similar with a close friend and it is hard to support, and be there. Kudos to the teacher!