Mindshifting is recognizing and shifting from the mindsets that hold us back to the mindsets that push us forward. I write about mindsets, Mindshifting, learning, and education, with the hope that these posts give readers more power over their own lives and helps them give others, like their students, more power as well.
Standing Up For Someone
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My friend Ana Amiguet challenged me to write about a time I had to stand up for someone This was over 50 years ago, but I remember it as if it was yesterday. I was in 9th grade, which was the last year of Junior High School. Martha was slightly developmentally disabled. She was in 7th grade, so this was her first year in Junior High. Martha was one of my sister Sue’s friends, a half year and a full grade older. Martha’s parents were very good friends with my parents. And her parents had always been very nice to me. She had two much older brothers. I think they were already in college. The bus stop was at the top of Martha’s driveway. Her mom would walk her to the driveway, I would walk from my house, and we would all wait for the school bus, and then Martha and I were the two kids who got on the bus at that stop. This one day we got on the bus. I sat in a seat toward the front of the bus. Martha sat a seat or so behind me. Within a few minutes, just about all the kids on the bus started to tease her. They teased her that she talked too slowly. They teased her that she was dumb. They teased her that her chest was flat. They teased her about her clothes. And me, I didn’t look back. I didn’t say anything. I knew as they were doing it that the moral thing to do was to help her. But I rationalized that I wasn’t at fault. I rationalized that it wasn’t my business. She was my sister’s friend, not mine. I started imagining her crying. Or maybe I wasn’t imagining it. Maybe she was quietly sobbing. But I didn’t turn around. I didn’t say anything. I just rode the bus, looking forward, and got off the bus as quickly as I could. But all through the day, what happened on the bus kept on bothering me. On the bus back from school, I didn’t see her. Maybe a teacher intervened and maybe her parents picked her up. I never knew. But the next day, I sat next to her on the bus. Most days after that I sat next to her. Nobody ever bothered her on the bus again. I’m not sure if sitting next to her made a difference. I think she probably did enjoy having someone sit next to her. But I still don’t think it makes up for my silence. |
Mindshifting Educators
Mindshifting is recognizing and shifting from the mindsets that hold us back to the mindsets that push us forward. I write about mindsets, Mindshifting, learning, and education, with the hope that these posts give readers more power over their own lives and helps them give others, like their students, more power as well.
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