Doing the Right Thing--Man Up!!

One of my sweet little girls new to my school brought a treasured book to school. I could tell her family thought about every dollar they spent, so a book bought from the spring book fair was certainly a prized possession. The book captured the attention of two boys. It was a Pokemon book and was one of the coolest books I had seen. It had activities, drawing lessons on how to create the characters, comic strips and more. One of the boys grabbed the book and the other boy decided he would get it back for her. Pretty soon I had World War III over the book and pages went flying. By the time I got over to the commotion, the book cover was in shreds. I am the type of teacher that a broken ruler or pencil will yield the student a good "talking to", but a torn up book just devastates me. I love books as much as I love bouncy balls. Books are adventures of the imagination and vacations from real life.

I pulled the two boys outside and gave them the opportunity to briefly tell me what happened. "You know guys," I began after a few words from each of them, "I saw this beautiful book this morning and now I hold something that is destroyed. What are you two going to do to make this right?" They looked at each other shocked that I hadn't started out with the normal, "Who did this and who is at fault?" I just cut right to the chase and skipped the entire judge and jury sytem and declared them guilty in the punishment phase. One boy looked into my eyes and then looked at the other boy and said, "If I put in five bucks, can you put in the other five bucks for the book?" I was so impressed with this child's character ready to pay restitution. Both boys had interesting behaviors on the porch. One boy was ready to step-up quickly and do the right thing and the other boy was quiet and hesitant.

After school I talked with both boys' parents. I found it very interesting that one boy's parent was ready to pay right then, and the other boy's parent was hesitant and quiet about the situation.

What are we teaching our own children in our own home? Our children really will model the behaviors they are taught at home. I have heard the phrase many times from teachers, "Well, the apple certainly didn't fall far from the tree." Parents really are partners with their child's education. I can move a stalled car by myself. I just can move that car a lot farther and a lot faster with some help.