As a teacher and a writer, the 3 C’s are important to me:
Compassion
Commitment
Creativity
I try to teach out and write out (and live out) the meanings of these words each and every day.
One day, I was helping one of my students by stacking his notebooks and Chrome Book for his afternoon classes.
He has a disorganized brain (like his teacher), but he is smart and kind.
I’m thankful he was in my classroom.
As I was turning his notebooks around, a piece of loose leaf notebook paper fell out of the side of one of them.
I picked it up.
There was a cartoon on it, one he had written and illustrated at home all on his own.
You can read and see it below.
You have to love a graphic novel with, “They would win every time until...the Evil Poop comes!!!” as the cliffhanger.
Who doesn’t need a superhero to help us overcome the evil poop?
“Alex,” I said to him as we were eating lunch, “Your cartoon is GREAT! You are a graphic novelist, you know. You could be a writer and illustrator when you grow up.”
He’s usually a verbose kid.
He was suddenly silent and mesmerized by my words.
He smiled a big, 4th grade smile at me.
“Gee, you’re right, Mr. Barton. I could do that. I mean, I’m planning on being a professional basketball player or a rapper, but if those things don’t work out then I can be a writer and an illustrator.”
(In my personal opinion, I don’t believe his first two options are going to work out.)
I smiled a big, Teacher smile back at him.
“Well, it’ll be good to have a plan C.”
And there before me, at a lunch table at a public school on an ordinary Wednesday, one of my big 3 C’s bloomed like a sunflower in a plowed field.
Creativity.
I love it.
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