1,000 Times

Music is another passion of mine.  At one point in my life I even thought about becoming a radio DJ, haha!  While driving in the car yesterday I heard a song that had a line that really stuck out to me.  The verse said "I don't mind, I would still come back 1,000 times.  Push me away and I will still come back 1,000 times".

I heard that line and I thought about us as educators.  How often do we have those students who just push us away.  Those kids who hurt so incredibly bad that their only safety lies in not getting to close to any one individual.

We can't give up on those children.  Those who push our buttons, those who drive us insane, those who need us the most.

On the same hand though, we have to come to the deep and hurtful truth that we can't save them all.  Yes, it's true.  Sometimes we think it's our job to fix and save every child.  I was just talking with my friends Chris Kesler and Josh Stumpenhorst about this exact concept.

Sometimes when we feel like we weren't able to break through to a child we think it's our fault.  We think we didn't try hard enough.  We think we didn't love enough.

But you see, that's not always the case.  Some children come from such painful existences that a years worth of love from one teacher may not be enough to break through right away.

And there's the catch with education.  We are never truly aware of the impact we have on a child because we typically only see them for one school year.

But something you say today or tomorrow could be the words that break through that broken and hardened heart.

So don't give up on a child.  Go back and try to reach them, again and again.  Even if it takes 1,000 times of telling them that they're valued, in the end the one time it gets through to them makes it all worth it.

photo credit: Thomas Ondrey, Plain Dealer File