“Please don’t call my house!” The words came out in a jumble, between sobs and sniffs as tears ran down his little face.
These were the words of a little boy who had just gotten sick in his classroom and needed to go home.
Or did he?
After walking him to the office to help clean him up, get him into some new clothing and take his temperature, it was my job to contact his parents to come pick him up from school. But he was unbelievably upset about that possibility.
In sitting with him for a little once he was cleaned and bundled up on the school’s cot, he told me his mom was in jail after the principal called the police on her and his dad was real mad about it. He didn’t want his dad to get mad at him again.
Now, the typical course of action when a child is sick is to call home so that someone will take care of him. But when that same child truly is better off at school, even though everyone around him will probably also get sick, what is one to do? Do I allow him to stay, knowing he might need an aspirin to bring down his fever or do I call home and hope that his father knows how to take care of a sick little boy and also hope to God that his father doesn’t beat him again once he gets home?
Schools have to do so much these days. It would be relatively easy for anyone to find an article about how schools are failing our youth. But maybe those readers should spend some time reflecting on the damage some parents are doing to their children that the adults within the heart of a school are trying to fix.
When a child comes to school, of course we all hope he or she is ready and eager to learn. However, in more and more situations, that same little child has just come into another building housing many people he hasn’t bonded with yet, still carrying the stresses he woke up with. Stresses like being hungry because his family doesn’t have enough food in the house because they are unemployed, have lost transportation or aren’t educated enough to read to sign the free breakfast and lunch forms. Stresses like being too tired to think after living a lifestyle without a bedtime due to living with parents who don’t understand what it means to take care of their child. Stresses like having dirty clothing on a dirty body because the water has been shut off at his house and his parents don’t know what to do about it. Stresses like being in pain because the parents, frustrated and angry at their own situations, have lost their moral compass and feel it is okay to beat their children.
A child cannot learn if he feels anxious, upset or stressed. Teachers may know how to take care of each individual child but honestly do not have the capability to do this for each student in addition to covering all the basics that the state department enforces.
So, what to do for this poor little boy? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we lived in a world in which all children knew that there were adults who cared about their welfare? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if children lived in a world where they could depend on their caretakers to make the right decisions? In our lives, we all have many chances to make a difference. I know what I did.
What would you do?
These were the words of a little boy who had just gotten sick in his classroom and needed to go home.
Or did he?
After walking him to the office to help clean him up, get him into some new clothing and take his temperature, it was my job to contact his parents to come pick him up from school. But he was unbelievably upset about that possibility.
In sitting with him for a little once he was cleaned and bundled up on the school’s cot, he told me his mom was in jail after the principal called the police on her and his dad was real mad about it. He didn’t want his dad to get mad at him again.
Now, the typical course of action when a child is sick is to call home so that someone will take care of him. But when that same child truly is better off at school, even though everyone around him will probably also get sick, what is one to do? Do I allow him to stay, knowing he might need an aspirin to bring down his fever or do I call home and hope that his father knows how to take care of a sick little boy and also hope to God that his father doesn’t beat him again once he gets home?
Schools have to do so much these days. It would be relatively easy for anyone to find an article about how schools are failing our youth. But maybe those readers should spend some time reflecting on the damage some parents are doing to their children that the adults within the heart of a school are trying to fix.
When a child comes to school, of course we all hope he or she is ready and eager to learn. However, in more and more situations, that same little child has just come into another building housing many people he hasn’t bonded with yet, still carrying the stresses he woke up with. Stresses like being hungry because his family doesn’t have enough food in the house because they are unemployed, have lost transportation or aren’t educated enough to read to sign the free breakfast and lunch forms. Stresses like being too tired to think after living a lifestyle without a bedtime due to living with parents who don’t understand what it means to take care of their child. Stresses like having dirty clothing on a dirty body because the water has been shut off at his house and his parents don’t know what to do about it. Stresses like being in pain because the parents, frustrated and angry at their own situations, have lost their moral compass and feel it is okay to beat their children.
A child cannot learn if he feels anxious, upset or stressed. Teachers may know how to take care of each individual child but honestly do not have the capability to do this for each student in addition to covering all the basics that the state department enforces.
So, what to do for this poor little boy? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we lived in a world in which all children knew that there were adults who cared about their welfare? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if children lived in a world where they could depend on their caretakers to make the right decisions? In our lives, we all have many chances to make a difference. I know what I did.
What would you do?
