Come with me to a
third grade classroom…
There is a
nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle
between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is
going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It's
never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never
hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again
as long as he lives.
The boy believes his
heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays, "This is an
emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat."
He looks up from his
prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been
discovered.
As the teacher is
walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is
filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps
the bowl of water in the boy's lap.
The boy pretends to
be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, "Thank you, thank you!"
Now all of a sudden,
instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy.
The teacher rushes
him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All
the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk.
The sympathy is wonderful.
But as life would
have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone
else - Susie.
She tries to help,
but they tell her to get out. You've done enough, you klutz!"
Finally, at the end
of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and
whispers, "You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Susie whispers back,
"I wet my pants once too."
May we all see the
opportunities that are always around us to do good.
Author
Unknown
Simple story….huge impact.
We can all learn a lesson from it too, right? We can take a little bit of blame, some
ridicule, or discomfort, if we know we are doing a greater good. And, the cool part is no one else ever has to
know….We do and that is enough.
Know that in your job, you do so many GOOD things that no
one else sees, but the kids know. They feel
it, and they know you are there for them….
I appreciate you, and how you all give of yourself in ways
that I will never fully know. I appreciate your ability to give when no one
is watching. I know that you get up and
face the day each day because you know you are doing a greater good. You truly are. I think that is what makes a good teacher so
great is that they are aware and compassionate…they look for how to take care
of kids that don’t even know what they need…
And, I know that (figuratively) we all wet our pants now and
again and need some help…I have a fish bowl ready if you need it…
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