Heart Strings

You. Guys.

I know a kiddo whose dad passed away recently. He crawled under my desk today to hide for a minute because he needed a quiet space. 

I know a kiddo whose home is in a bit of turmoil. He was extra loud today and needed lots of attention and movement.

I know another kiddo who is currently losing her grandpa, who has very much helped raise her. She needed extra encouragement and smiles today to keep plugging through. 

I know a kiddo who couldn't tell me what was wrong today - but he wasn't himself. He needed space, and breaks, in order to cope. 

These kids ... They are going through more than many adults have been through. 

They are struggling with things that adults absolutely fall apart trying to handle. 

.....and they show up to school every day.

They sit in their desks, they listen to my read aloud, they do work and math and projects and try to make good book choices to read independently and they walk quietly in the hall and keep their hands to themselves at recess  ...

...and they are just sweet little babies (who are old enough to be real mad that I called them that). 

We are striving to be a people that is *so good* at giving adults grace. We strive to meet each other where we are at. 

But these babies? These babies are in those same, really hard, sometimes terrible feeling, places. Most of the time, they didn't get there of their own choosing or their own actions. Much of the time they don't understand why they are there and they may not be able to see the whole picture of their own world. 

So, they show up to school.....Where I give them work to do and ask them to sit calmy in the chair and to please not talk over me. 

...... Yeah, Right.

They don't always know how to express what they are going through and worrying about. They don't always ask for help in productive ways. They haven't always figured out that positive attention is even better than negative attention. They sometimes have stories I cannot fathom that they aren't sure how to tell. 

Today was a good reminder that these babies need me to give them grace. They need me to meet them where they are at - even if that's under the teachers desk. They need me love them through their hardship and remain a consistent, patient, known factor, in their sometimes tumoltuous worlds. 

They need me to show them the importance of doing their work and behaving respectfully by showing them respect and helping provide them with coping strategies and patience. They need me to understand that some days are just hard - even for the best of us. And they need me to let them know it's okay to have hard days .... And help them figure out how to handle them productively. 

I've always known this teaching gig wasn't for the faint of heart. Once I thought that was because of the work load ... I'm learning it's a little bit of that, and a lot more because of the heart, itself.