Negative Voices
copyright ©2010 Mitchell Malloy (http://mitchellmalloyblogspot.com/)
You know that saying: “You learn more from kids”? Well, it applies to teachers as well as parents. In the late ‘90s, I taught at a Christian school in Central Florida, and I learned more from one class than I ever passed on to them. Now as a father of 5, all my children are my favorites, and as a teacher I tried not to show any favoritism. But the reality of life is that we sometimes click better with some people than others, and I really enjoyed the kids in this one particular class. They were some of my “favorites”. Then a new student entered the class and the whole atmosphere changed.
This new kid really wasn’t bad, and outside of the classroom, I truly liked him. But in class he was very disruptive, even to the point where my once favorite class had become my least favorite. As this new kid criticized and complained, it seemed as if the entire room was filled with similar students. I don’t recall all the details, but I remember feeling completely alone against a class of angry students. Finally, despite some initial pressure from the administration to accommodate this student’s poor behavior, I decided to raise the expectations for acceptable behavior. It wasn’t easy, but things started to shift.
However, the big eye-opener for me was when one of the other students came up to me and thanked me. I listened in quiet dismay as I discovered most of the class had been annoyed with the disruptive behavior of the new kid. I had sensed their frustration, but I had always assumed it was directed towards me.
That’s what happens with the negative voices: they always seem to get amplified.
The truth in the situation was that one voice disrupted the whole group. Life can seem that way for all of us: one negative voice seems to echo from the faces of people who are ready to be our encouragers and supporters. It’s amazing the destructive power behind one negative voice.
But there’s also power in being an encourager. The student who came up and thanked me taught me more in that brief conversation than anything else that year, and I am extremely grateful for the little that was shared. Those words were life-giving to me, and I try to reflect this encouragement into others’ lives.
Each of us has a daily opportunity to offer life-giving words to others… or at the very least to avoid being that negative voice. May we choose wisely.
You know that saying: “You learn more from kids”? Well, it applies to teachers as well as parents. In the late ‘90s, I taught at a Christian school in Central Florida, and I learned more from one class than I ever passed on to them. Now as a father of 5, all my children are my favorites, and as a teacher I tried not to show any favoritism. But the reality of life is that we sometimes click better with some people than others, and I really enjoyed the kids in this one particular class. They were some of my “favorites”. Then a new student entered the class and the whole atmosphere changed.
This new kid really wasn’t bad, and outside of the classroom, I truly liked him. But in class he was very disruptive, even to the point where my once favorite class had become my least favorite. As this new kid criticized and complained, it seemed as if the entire room was filled with similar students. I don’t recall all the details, but I remember feeling completely alone against a class of angry students. Finally, despite some initial pressure from the administration to accommodate this student’s poor behavior, I decided to raise the expectations for acceptable behavior. It wasn’t easy, but things started to shift.
However, the big eye-opener for me was when one of the other students came up to me and thanked me. I listened in quiet dismay as I discovered most of the class had been annoyed with the disruptive behavior of the new kid. I had sensed their frustration, but I had always assumed it was directed towards me.
That’s what happens with the negative voices: they always seem to get amplified.
The truth in the situation was that one voice disrupted the whole group. Life can seem that way for all of us: one negative voice seems to echo from the faces of people who are ready to be our encouragers and supporters. It’s amazing the destructive power behind one negative voice.
But there’s also power in being an encourager. The student who came up and thanked me taught me more in that brief conversation than anything else that year, and I am extremely grateful for the little that was shared. Those words were life-giving to me, and I try to reflect this encouragement into others’ lives.
Each of us has a daily opportunity to offer life-giving words to others… or at the very least to avoid being that negative voice. May we choose wisely.
