Stop! Reverse That!

I'm Having a Willy Wonka Moment: Reverse That.

Preface This: The purpose of this Happy Rule is to bring personal awareness.

Momma would ask us to give her fifteen minutes to come down from her school day. After time was up, she wanted to know how our day went. I can remember talking to my mom, on occasion, about some teacher's negative behavior during my school day. I had the blessing of her comforting wisdom from an educators stand point. It's likely you did that, too. My mother was never the teacher, who thought no teacher was ever wrong. She understood my questions.

Sadly, I have witnessed the same puzzling behavior from a few educators in these last decade of volunteering in my children's schools and working as an instructional aide.  Worse still, my own children had three educators that stand out to them today as being the "evil ones". See if this sounds familiar to you.

Teacher makes comments to student(s) in front of the class like: "Your parents are....!", "What kind of parents do you all have!?", "What is YOUR problem!?", "If your parents would....!", "I don't know why I do this job!", "You big baby!", etc. Picture other hateful, humiliating, and disrespectful comments being spoken loudly to a child or at times screamed at an entire class, including the many innocent children. The "innocent" children being the ones that sit everyday fearfully squirming in their seats. They pray every moment of every school day they will not be the ones to have to wrath pour down on their heads.

Now step back. Reverse that. Put your child, grandchild, or self in the receivers position. OUCHHH! You've seen it, too! Does it make you want to say the following to that so called educator?

"Stop! Would you like your child to be subjected to that verbal and emotional abuse? I wish you could see yourself. We all get heated at times. We have kiddos that appear to have a mission to push us to the brinks of insanity, but what we say can often not be undone. They are the children! We are the adults! Our tongue can be a two edge sword, which cuts the very confidence out of a child's academic heart forever. I assure you, your peers are about as sick and tired of hearing your ranting, screaming, and hateful comments. You are making our world stressful around here! Stop terrorizing the children in your classroom. Stop it!"

Happy Schools can't have happy vibes when hateful, hurtful comments are shouted and screamed at the children. Educators are suppose to be teaching respect, anti-bullying, and self-esteem. Fellow educators are sick of hearing it....maybe even more sick of it than the children are. Thus, stress and tension begins to rise among the staff. So, lets look inside ourselves. Is there someone you need to pull aside and kindly give an eye opening talk. Or, could it be you needing a wake-up call? In the words of the Great Wonka, "Let's Reverse That". 

Find ways to cope with the stress that are effective and not destructive. 
Synergize. 
Seek to Understand. 
Be a part of the healing in our Happy Schools.

Remember: What comes around....usually does go around.

How This Blog Was Born

Happy Rules for Happy Schools

I'm the daughter of an educator. Yes, I grew up in a school environment. My extended family has been the school family I grew up around. I've been watching educators and staff do their jobs since I was a child. My mother recently retired (for the second time!) after over forty years of being an educator and pioneer in the area of special education. She's shared decades of wisdom with  me. The dynamics in relationships between educators, staff, and students has everything to do with how healthy and happy the vibes are circulating around a school building. She has never really stopped tutoring children with the hope to learn.

Was anybody in my world more shocked than me when I, the interior designer, began subbing several years ago during the our nations big economic crisis? Absolutely not! I wanted to do something that would be stretching my soulheart. So, I dug in my prayer heals. God opened up the french doors for me to work within a wonderful school system. My husband and children are highly supportive of my decision---even proud, I think.

A friend asked me, if I would consider putting my thoughts for creating healthier school staff environments into tangible words. We spent time together reminiscing over the years of growing up in school and then seeing it from the adult perspective...hers from principalship, mine from instructional aide. Actually, she would have been the better writer. 

On most days, I am blessed to receive an education simply by observing how the adults in a school interact with one another and their students. Sometimes I pull from my memories and the conversations I have with educators and staff. Here I am with all of maybe thirty readers. I'm doing it one little blog at a time! 

I began collecting thoughts on how we can make our school environments happier by going back inside ourselves to seek the gift of "happiness". This requires a private sense of honesty and humbling. Sometimes it's easy to grow better and other times it's a tad uncomfy. At least, it is for me. It's never, ever to late to get better. My desire is to inspire someone to be happier in their school environment. It's simple. Happier School Staff make for Happier Schools period. The Beginning.

This is part of my amazing school family.