Response to Teaching Hope, "Challenges"

This was a very intense reading. All of these teachers had incredibly emotional experiences to write about. Most of them had been through trauma in their lives, but many of those had hopeful outlooks for what was to come. One section that deeply affected me was Section 24, which recounted a scene in which a tense classroom wrote positive Post-It Notes to one another, and one girl who was being victimized by bullies and rumors to the point of suicide received a note saying “I am happy you are here.” It really clicks with a philosophy of mine that while most people are inclined to naturally behave indecently with one another, almost everybody will eagerly step up and be a good person in a time of need.

Another section that connected with and reassured me was the one about the student who wrote a letter to his teacher about how he came from a more together home than his peers, and he felt left out of their discussions about their difficult home lives. The teacher’s response was one that I felt well about – a response explaining that everybody has their own situation and that the student is in a wonderful learning situation, to see what parts of the country can be like. The teacher also modeled good behavior by creating a classroom where that discussion was encouraged and appropriate.