While teaching today, I was working with a student who has a difficult home life. The student is a first grader with a moderate cognitive impairment (aka and IQ between 40-55). My student has often been scared at rest time and needs some serious TLC.
But beyond being scared, he also feels unloved. He is often saying that nobody loves him. This isn't like a teenage girl who thinks the world is out to get her but deep down knows her parents love her. This is a kid who might honestly never hear that his family loves him.
This made me think of the powerful responsibility that's within all of us to show others, but especially children, how much they're loved. My student was so caught up in this terrible feeling that he couldn't do his schoolwork today. But I wonder what other areas of life this impacts too.
Of course, at the end of a long and hard day, my greatest joy was hearing this same student yell "I love you, Miss. C. " as he boarded his bus. We give love, even if we don't feel loved. It's a tragically beautiful phenomenon. Still, I hope my undying love for this precious child can somehow shine through the clouds of doubt in his life.
It can be difficult for some people to show love. Sometimes fear or insecurity, perhaps masked by arrogance, inhibit our ability to love. But to love is our calling. We are meant to see all people, regardless of any attribute that's labeled as different, bad, or abnormal. We are made to see all people as fearfully and wonderfully made, worthy of true and honest love.
Singing as one,
SJC
