Category: Inspiration

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The Difference Between A Teacher And An Educator

Baggage

This starts my 22nd year of teaching middle school. Yesterday was quite possibly one of the most impactful days I have ever had.

I tried a new activity called “The Baggage Activity”. I asked the kids what it meant to have baggage and they mostly said it was hurtful stuff you carry around on your shoulders.

I asked them to write down on a piece of paper what was bothering them, what was heavy on their heart, what was hurting them, etc. No names were to be on a paper. They wadded the paper up, and threw it across the room.

They picked up a piece of paper and took turns reading out loud what their classmate wrote. After a student read a paper, I asked who wrote that, and if they cared to share.

I’m here to tell you, I have never been so moved to tears as what these kids opened up and about and shared with the class.

Things like suicide, parents in prison, drugs in their family, being left by their parents, death, cancer, losing pets (one said their gerbil died cause it was fat, we giggled😁) and on and on.

The kids who read the papers would cry because what they were reading was tough. The person who shared (if they chose to tell us it was them) would cry sometimes too. It was an emotionally draining day, but I firmly believe my kids will judge a little less, love a little more, and forgive a little faster.

This bag hangs by my door to remind them that we all have baggage. We will leave it at the door. As they left I told them, they are not alone, they are loved, and we have each other’s back.

I am honored to be their teacher.

Credit: Karen Wunderlich Loewe

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8 Fights Worth Having With Your Children

Family

(Tom: Absolutely LOVE this and agree 1,000%!)

Copied from David Morris on Twitter.
Photography by Rebekah Melancon.

Saw this somewhere and it was immensely helpful and challenging.

Parenting is hard. Parents have to choose their battles. Here are 8 fights worth picking with your kids:

The Reading Fight:
Make your kids read. Because reading is tied to everything from cognitive development to the ability to focus. Make your kids read now.

The Outside Fight:
Make your kids go outside. The natural world teaches us things. Plus, outside there’s sunshine, fresh air, and exercise waiting for them. Most importantly, nature is full of things in short supply in our world: Discovery, wonder, peace, joy.

The Work Fight:
Make your kids work. I’m saddened by how many parents don’t require their kids to lift a finger at home. There are priceless life principles you can only learn with a mop in your hand. Let sweat be their teacher.

The Meal Fight:
Make your kids eat as a family. Our lives are a blur of incessant activity. Meals together are a physical pause to recover a truth so easily sacrificed at the altar of busyness. Nothing’s more important than family.

The Boredom Fight:
Make your kids live with boredom. Don’t show a DVD on each car ride. Kids need unscheduled time. And, odd as it sounds, boredom is a skill. It’s hard as a parent to deal with the assault of boredom complaints. But if you give in and fill up their time with external stimuli, you’ll raise an activity addict. Make them learn how to be.

The “Me First” Fight:
Make your kids go last. Not every time for everything. But enough to remember that the world doesn’t revolve around them. Take the smallest piece. Give up the remote. Do someone else’s chores. Get their least favorite choice. They won’t like it, but they need it.

The Awkward Conversation Fight:
Make your kids have uncomfortable conversations with you. Sex, dating, body image, values…Your kids will roll their eyes and resist. You will stumble and stutter. They need and want your perspective, lessons learned, and wisdom.

The Limitation Fight:
Learning to live within limits is a valuable life skill. In fact, many adult problems arise from an inability to accept them. Screen time limits, dietary limits, activity limits, and schedule limits are all good.

As a parent, you have to pick your battles. They’re not easy, but they’re worth the fight.

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Nothing Is Normal

Nothing Is Normal

It IS true that everybody is unique but it is NOT true that nobody is OK.

There is a scale of almost infinite graduations from rock bottom to the stars and we are all on it. AND we change position on it. Sometimes by the minute.

IMHO the first attitude to have is that you want to improve your position on the scale.

The second is that there are laws and rules and truths to be known and we need to learn AND APPLY them to move up on the scale.

The third is to recognise is that the above process will not be easy. There will be tough times. Unimaginably tough times.

There will be obstacles that seem insurmountable until you overcome them.

There will be trials that test your patience and resolve until you pass them.

There will be distractions galore away from which you will need to discipline yourself.

There will be things in your past you find difficult to confront, for it was the lack of confronting them then got you to where you are today.

But as you walk the path to enlightenment and truth, things get easier, they get better, your relationships iron out, you become more at cause over your work and life, you are more productive and feel happier.

This I tell you honestly from personal experience. And I wish for you what I have gained for me.

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The Wisdom Of Adversity

The Wisdom Of Adversity

Behind every bad condition will be found a psychiatrist.

In 1947 the then president of the World Federation of Mental Health, Brock Chisholm, said, “The reinterpretation and eventual eradication of the concept of right and wrong are the belated objectives of nearly all Psychotherapy.”

Chisholm further stated that if they were to be successful they needed to infiltrate the professions to introduce their ideas (more correctly called “insanities”) there.

This year is the 76th anniversary of his speech. Looking around at the average intelligence level, morality, ethics and consequent problems with crime, drugs, sexual perversions etc. I’d say the psychiatrists were remarkably successful!

If we as parents and teachers do not instill in our children respect for one another, tolerance for differences, that there is right and wrong, the difference between right and wrong, that actions have consequences and that regardless of what has happened in the past one has the ultimate responsibility for the actions one takes in the present, then we are, by our neglect, cocreating a society where psychiatry’s evil intentions are widely manifest, as is happening at present.

To those interested in knowing from whence came this insanity here are a few articles you might find of interest.

Psychiatry Is NOT Your Friend!
https://www.tomgrimshaw.com/tomsblog/?p=40551

The Collapse Of Civilization
https://www.tomgrimshaw.com/tomsblog/?p=40800

And this to help you move forward:
To Your Success
https://www.tomgrimshaw.com/tomsblog/?p=43446

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Grade Point Avg By Cannabis Use

 

Grade Point Avg By Cannabis Use

Karen Hadley writes: I found this chart in my research. You can see that a person who uses marijuana daily (green bar all the way to the right) will typically have significantly lower grades than a person who does not (green bar all the way to the left). Therefore it follows that if you want to be a success in school and in life, leave the pot alone. That’s the simple fact, summed up in this one chart.