Inspiring Anecdotes and Stories >>

In years to come, a child may forget what you taught them.
But will always remember how you made them feel.
~~Comment by Steven Krushen

We often forget that the greatest gift we can give a child is a belief in himself and his own self worth for then all else follows.
Have you ever noticed how just the words, "You did a good job" can inspire you to do better and make you feel so good inside? I have seen this happen time and time again, not only in my own life but in the lives of the teachers and children I have worked with.
If only we could remember these five little words, the world would be a better place.
One year I worked as a teacher aide in an elementary classroom. Fear and anxiety showed in the eyes of each child and I left each day, vowing not to return the following day. There was nothing concrete to could complain about, just little things that happened each day to kill the spirit of each child and to make each one feel small and insignificant. Each morning upon arriving in the classroom workbooks and papers would be lined up below the blackboard ledge and above each would be a list: Tommy, 3x Arithmetic, 6x Spelling, 9x Reading workbook, and so on. The list continued for every child who then was allowed no recess until all his mistakes were corrected. The teacher, I believe, felt she was teaching good work habits and perhaps for those children who only had occasional errors or very few, she was; unfortunately, those whose names were repetitively on the board each day must have felt so utterly destroyed as they entered the classroom.
What a wonderful morning greeting....to be told how many mistakes you had made the day before.
This was a teacher who marked her time and effectiveness by how correct her students were, not by the values she was teaching them. She had obviously never heard that praise works wonders and every day I left that classroom with the same feeling of despair as the seven year olds who understood less than I did how she was breaking their spirit.

http://www3.sk.sympatico.ca/krushen/madethemfeel.html