We have all heard about the jersey burning and how upset fans were four years ago. Who would have thought that those same fans would be so forgiving? Do we forgive our students like that? I hope so.
Now my analogy has to stop at the rooting against James part. I admit that even I rooted against him at times. I am not suggesting that educators would ever do that.
What I am talking about is second chances. We need to make sure that our students are given second chances to perform academically and second chances in regards to behavior. We shouldn't judge our students by their behavior or one score on an assignment.
In LeBron's statement, he showed a lot of maturity. We forget that we watch our students mature every day. We should be patient to let that maturity develop. James' maturity may also have been helped by the fact that time heals all wounds.
Let's be honest, a lot of the forgiveness comes out of the fact that we think he will bring a championship to Ohio. James has already shown that he can succeed at the highest level. As educators, we need to give our students second, third, fourth, fifth or however many chances they need to succeed. Who knows, they may lead us to championships as well.
photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/keithallison/3404618770/">Keith Allison</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
Love it. Allowing for immaturity as well as allowing for growth to maturity is what great teachers do. At least mine did. Baxter, Dunn, and Jagunic did those things for me. Great post.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. As teachers we complain about maturity sometimes. We need to remember that our students are kids and that maturity didn't happen overnight, it didn't with me or you. The great ones like Baxter and Jagunic know that.
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