Notes from public school - day 27

Kindness.

I see kindness every day.

Elementary school kids have a knack for it.

Sometimes they show it with sparkles in their eyes and smiles on their faces as they hug, high five, handshake or fist bump their way into the classroom in the morning.

Sometimes they show it with words. “Mr. Barton, you’re the best! You’re the smartest teacher in the world!”

Oftentimes they show it with pictures.

Such is the way of Emily.

“She never stops talking,” said my 3rd grade teacher friend who taught her last year.

She was kidding.

I have another student who says more in one minute than Emily says all week.

I’m not kidding.

She is so quiet.

She is a sunflower in a field, following the path of the sun.

There is beauty in her silence.

She works so hard.

She pours herself into the school day, trying to be the best person she can be and do the best work she can do.

I know why she’s quiet.

Her Dad is in Mexico.

She is here.

She wants him to be here with her.

That’s why she’s quiet.

Every Friday, I give out a student of the week award.

I look for students who are kind, hard working, and well behaved.

Last Friday, she earned the award.

I wish you could’ve seen the sparkle in her brown eyes and the brightness of her smile when I called her name.

The other students clapped and cheered for her.

I handed her the award and gave her a fist bump.

She didn’t say a word, as is her way.

On Monday, she hugged me as she walked through the classroom door.

She put her backpack down, opened it and took out a yellow folder.

Inside of the folder, there was a picture...a drawing she had created for me.

I can see a lot about her life as I look at that picture this afternoon.

The paper on which it is drawn is tattered and torn. 

Her little family is very poor, so there’s no money for sketch pads and art pencils.

The character is smiling.

This is the miraculous thing. 

The smile of the character is like her smile on Friday when she received her award.

By drawing this picture for me, it is as if she is saying, “I’m carrying a deep sadness inside of me, but you seeing me, you believing in me, brought me a moment of happiness, a moment of joy.”

Such is the way of Emily.

Such is the way of a teacher.

Such is the way of kindness.