photo credit: hoyasmeg

Actions can last a lifetime. I still remember sitting in my fourth grade classroom, waiting and hoping for someone to choose me to be their partner. You see, Friday meant the boys and girls would choose partners for the Friday Square Dance. The teacher would ask the boys to line up on one side of the room and they had to pick a dance partner. Being different from the other kids in my room, I was usually one of the last ones to get chosen.  As young as I was, I often wondered why the teacher wouldn’t just choose the partners instead of putting us through this humbling experience.

But, we can all learn from bad experiences and use these situations to help others.  I decided to go into education and to become a teacher.  When I was assigned my classroom, I was determined to maintain a positive and nourishing atmosphere.  I found that my students responded to praise, a caring attitude, and words of encouragement.  I taught them to believe in themselves and to always believe that they can.

I enjoyed my years in the classroom, and I can say that I always avoided situations where students had opportunities to discriminate against other students. I hope that all adults, teachers and parents learn as much as possible about their children/ students and never knowingly put them in embarrassing, or discriminating situations.

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Arlene Richards